Ivy League Championship Series
Game 38 • Cornell at Dartmouth
First Pitch: Saturday, May 2, at 12 p.m.
Site: Red Rolfe Field at Biondi Park • Hanover, N.H.

Game 39 • Cornell at Dartmouth
First Pitch: Saturday, May 2, at approx. 3 p.m.
Site: Red Rolfe Field at Biondi Park • Hanover, N.H.

Game 39 • Cornell at Dartmouth (if necessary)
First Pitch: Sunday, May 3, at 1 p.m.
Site: Red Rolfe Field at Biondi Park • Hanover, N.H.

The Basics
2009 Records:
    Cornell: 16-21, 10-10 Ivy League
    Dartmouth: 23-14, 16-4 Ivy League
Series Record: Dartmouth leads, 82-70-1
Season Series: Dartmouth leads, 2-0

Media Information
Television: none
Radio: none
Live Video: DartmouthSports.com
Live Stats: DartmouthSports.com

Cornell Notes in PDF Format

ITHACA, N.Y. -- For just the second time since divisional play began in 1993, the Cornell baseball team will play for the Ivy League championship when it meets Dartmouth this weekend in Hanover, N.H. The Ivy League Championship Series, a best-of-three series, begins with games one and two on Saturday, with game three played on Sunday if necessary. Tickets for each day of the championship series are $5 for adults and $3 for children ages 14 and under, while Ivy League students will be admitted free with a valid student ID. For fans not able to make the trip to Hanover, live video will be available free of charge, while live stats will also be available to follow the action.

HOW WE GOT HERE
Dartmouth posted a 16-4 record to finish atop the Rolfe Division by one game over Brown and earn hosting rights for this weekend's championship series. Cornell, meanwhile, finished tied with Princeton at 10-10 for first place in the Gehrig Division, with the Big Red advancing to the championship series after scoring a 9-0 victory in the one-game playoff on Wednesday at Hoy Field in Ithaca.

THE HEAD COACH
In his first season as the Ted Thoren Head Coach of Baseball at Cornell University, Bill Walkenbach has guided the Big Red to a share of its first division title and first appearance in the Ivy League Championship Series since 2005. Named head coach on Aug. 14, 2008, Walkenbach is in his second stint on the coaching staff of the Big Red, having previously served as an assistant coach under current associate head coach Tom Ford from 2003-05. He returned to Cornell after spending three seasons as the head coach at Franklin & Marshall, guiding the Diplomats to an NCAA tournament berth in 2006 and a 69-42 record. Now in his fourth season as a collegiate head coach, Walkenbach has a career record of 85-63 (.574).

ABOUT THE BIG RED
Coming on strong over the second half of the season, the Big Red enters the weekend with a 16-21 overall record. The Big Red is batting .292 as a team, the seventh-highest team batting average in school history. Cornell pitchers also have a combined earned-run average of 5.74. Freshman Brian Billigen leads the team with a .384 average, while Nathan Ford (.373), Mickey Brodsky (.309), Scott Hardinger (.308) and Matt Langseth are all batting better than .300 for the year. Hardinger has scored a team-best 29 runs, while Ford and Brodsky share team-high honors with 34 runs batted in apiece. Ford also has the team lead in home runs with eight, while Nate David is right behind with six long balls this season. On the mound, Jadd Schmeltzer leads Cornell's starters with a 3.55 earned-run average in 38.0 innings of work, with Corey Pappel posting a 4.84 ERA in 35.1 innings. Seven different pitchers have posted a pair of wins, and Pappel leads all Big Red pitchers with 37 strikeouts. Out of the bullpen, David Rochefort has a 2.74 earned-run average to go along with a 2-3 record and seven saves. Stephen Osterer has also been exceptional out of the bullpen, posting a 3.26 earned-run average, a 2-1 record and one save.

ABOUT DARTMOUTH
Dartmouth has been an offensive force this season, as the Big Green is batting .307 as a team, with eight regulars hitting better than .300 on the year. Dartmouth has scored nearly 100 more runs than Cornell has (284-199), and has scored 10 or more runs in a game 13 times, including nine times in Ivy League play. The Big Green is paced by Nick Santomauro, who leads the Ivy League with his .395 batting average. Joe Sclafani has scored a team-best 42 runs on the year, while Santomauro, Ray Allen and Jim Wren share the team lead with 37 runs batted in. Santomauro and Allen both have eight home runs on the year, as Dartmouth has slugged 37 home runs this season. On the mound, Dartmouth pitchers have combined for a 5.88 earned-run average, with Kyle Hendricks leading the staff with a 5-2 record. Ben Murray has a team-best 3.83 earned-run average in 42.1 innings of work. Cole Sulser leads the team with 34 strikeouts, while reliever Ryan Smith has been dominating out of the bullpen, striking out 25 with just two walks, while picking up nine saves on the year to go along with a 4.67 earned-run average.

THE SEASON SERIES WITH DARTMOUTH
Dartmouth took both games of the season series, scoring a 13-8 win in the seven-inning opener and a 14-11 win in game two on April 5 in Hanover, N.H. Kyle Hendricks got the win in game one, going 5.2 innings and allowing eight runs on 11 hits. Tony Bertucci took the loss for the Big Red, allowing eight runs on eight hits in 3.2 innings. In game two, Cole Sulser went seven innings, allowing two earned runs on seven Cornell hits for the win. Mickey Brodsky got the start and lasted just one inning, allowing seven runs on six hits.

PLAYOFF FEAVER
A nine-run first inning was all the scoring needed as the Cornell baseball team advanced to the Ivy League Championship Series with a 9-0 victory over Princeton on Wednesday afternoon at Hoy Field. Cornell pitchers kept Princeton hitters off-balance all day, as four Big Red pitchers combined to strike out 18 Tigers, tying a school record that has stood for 52 years. Starter Corey Pappel went six innings and struck out 11 and allowing just two hits and three walks. Stephen Osterer, Jadd Schmeltzer and David Rochefort each worked an inning, striking out three, two and two, respectively, to tie a record set twice in 1957. Every batter in the Cornell lineup scored in the first inning as the Big Red sent 14 men to the plate in the inning. Mickey Brodsky was the only Cornell hitter to record more than one hit on the day, going 2-for-3, with Domenic Di Ricco going 1-for-4 with two runs batted in and Nate David going also getting one hit in four at-bats, driving in three runs on a deep home run to left field.

AND THE AWARD GOES TO...
Junior Nate David and sophomore Corey Pappel were recognized as the Ivy League co-player and co-pitcher of the week, respectively, when the most recent awards were announced on Tuesday. David batted .533 last week, getting a hit in five of the Big Red's six games, including a grand slam in his only at-bat against Siena and a 3-for-3 performance in game two on Friday against Princeton. Pappel, meanwhile, threw eight innings of three-hit ball on Friday in the Big Red's 4-1 victory in game two over the Tigers. He struck out nine and walked three in the contest, retiring Princeton in order in four of the eight innings he worked.

UNCHARTED TERRITORY
While Cornell is making its second appearance in the Ivy League Championship Series, Dartmouth is no stranger to the Ivy League's postseason. The Big Green played host to last season's championship series, which Columbia won in three games, and will be making its fifth appearance in the championship series, though Dartmouth has never won. The Big Green lost each of its first three trips to the league championship series to Princeton before falling to Columbia last season. For Cornell, post-season play is even more of a rarity, as the Big Red has claimed just its second divisional title since the Ivy League went to divisional play before 1993. The Big Red has only won a league championship or a divisional title just seven times since first playing baseball in 1869. Cornell's league championships came in 1939, 1940, 1943, 1952 and 1977 in the EIBL and the 2005 Gehrig Division title in the Ivy League. Still, Cornell's coaches have post-season experience, as all three of Bill Walkenbach, Tom Ford and Scott Marsh were on the coaching staff in 2005 - only then, it was Walkenbach and Marsh assisting Ford, instead of this season's edition of Ford and Marsh helping Walkenbach.

SWING AND A WHIFF
Four Cornell pitchers teamed up to strike out 18 Princeton batters in the Gehrig Division playoff on Wednesday, equalling a school record that has stood since 1957. The 18 strikeouts by the Big Red are the most since Cornell pitchers struck out 18 on June 8, 1957 against Colgate in a 4-2 victory. The original record of 18 strikeouts was set on May 4, 1957, against Yale, in a 4-2 loss.

COREY PAPPEL-BON?
Borrowing from the Red Sox closer for a minute, Cornell sophomore certainly looked like a Major League pitcher on Wednesday against Princeton. Pappel struck out 11 in just six innings of work, the most by a single Cornell pitcher this season. Pappel's total of 11 is the highest since Dan Baysinger struck out 11 on April 10, 2004. Pappel, who has been coming on strong of late, had the previous high by a Big Red pitcher this season when he fanned nine against Princeton on April 24.

SAVING THE DAY
Cornell closer David Rochefort picked up the save in game two of the doubleheader against Princeton on April 26, giving him seven for the season and setting a new school record. Rochefort broke the old mark of six, set by David Sharfstein from 2002, and moved into a tie with Sharfstein for second on the all-time career list with seven. John Douglas holds the career mark of nine from 1985-88.

IN THE SWING OF THINGS
Cornell's team batting average of .292 is currently the seventh-highest batting average in program history. Collectively, the Big Red has batted better than .300 just five times in its history. The current .292 average is the highest the BIg Red has hit as a team since the 1991 season, when Cornell batted .306.

ON A ROLL
Forgive the Big Red players if they have an extra bit of confidence heading into this weekend's series against Dartmouth, in spite of being swept by the Big Green on April 5 in Hanover. Since Dartmouth took both games of the doubleheader, the Big Red has gone 12-5, and has only lost back-to-back games once over that span. As a team, the Big Red is batting .309 since, while Cornell pitchers have a 3.68 earned-run average while holding opposing hitters to a .242 average.

GO LONG
Cornell players have combined to hit 32 home runs this season, good for third all-time in program history. Led by eight from Nathan Ford, the Big Red trails the school record of 35, set in 1999, and the second-highest mark of 34, set in 2001. Nine different players have hit at least one home run this season.

START ME UP
Since freshman Brian Billigen took over the leadoff spot in the batting order on April 4 at Harvard, the Big Red has turned its season around, going 12-9 in the 21 ensuing games. Prior to Billigen's insertion at the top of the order, Cornell was just 4-12. Additionally, the team is batting .315, with each of the top four batters in the lineup batting well over .300 . In the first 16 games, only two batters - Nathan Ford and Nate David - were over the .300 mark as Cornell hit just .262 as a team.

SWING AND A MISS
Cornell pitchers have combined to strike out 226 opposing batters this season, putting together nearly a 2-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Corey Pappel, after having struck out 20 in his last two starts, leads the team with 37 punchouts on the season. David Rochefort has struck out 29 batters while walking just four, while Mickey Brodsky has 18 strikeouts to five walks this season and Stephen Osterer has 17 strikeouts to six walks. Among regular pitchers for the Big Red, all have struck out more batters than they have walked.

GOING STREAKING
Nathan Ford holds the longest hitting streak of the year for the Big Red, getting a base hit in 14 straight games from March 28 against Brown to April 18 at Columbia. Senior Adam Jacobs holds the longest active hitting streak at 10 games, raising his batting average from .192 to its current mark of .248 in the process.

BALANCED OFFENSE
In picking up a split against Princeton last weekend, the Big Red got contributions from all parts of the batting order. Eight different players contributed to the 15 runs scored, with Frank Hager, Domenic Di Ricco and Mickey Brodsky touching home three times each. Similarly, seven players had at least one RBI on the weekend, led by Adam Jacobs and Di Ricco with three apiece.

BALANCED OFFENSE, PART TWO
In Cornell's nine-run first inning against Princeton on Wednesday, the Big Red had 11 men reach base safely, with nine straight players coming around to score, as no player scored more than once on the day.

AVOIDING THE GOOSE-EGG
When Cornell was shut out, 2-0, to open the four-game set against Princeton on April 24, it marked just the second time this season, and the first against Ivy League competition, that the Big Red had been blanked. Cornell has a pair of shutout wins this year, a 7-0 win over Navy to open the year and Wednesday's 9-0 victory over Princeton. By contrast, Dartmouth has shut out just Columbia, while being shut out against San Jose State, Santa Clara and Boston College.

UP NEXT
The winner of this weekend's Ivy League Championship Series will earn the league's automatic bid into the NCAA tournament. Pairings for the tournament will be announced on May 25, with tournament play opening up on May 29 at 16 sites around the country.