Game Notes I Live Stats vs. Syracuse I Live Stats at Penn

GAME INFORMATION
Games #30-31: Syracuse vs. Cornell
First Pitch: Thursday, April 15, at 3:30 p.m.
Site: Niemand•Robison Softball Field, Ithaca, N.Y.
2010 Records: Syracuse (19-16, 5-3 Big East); Cornell (21-8, 7-1 Ivy League)
Series Record: Syracuse leads 10-8
Last Meeting: Syracuse won 8-0 (5 inn.), April 15, 2009 in Syracuse, N.Y.

Games #32-35: Cornell vs. Penn
First Pitch: Saturday, April 17, at 12:30 p.m., Sunday, April 18, at 12:30 p.m.
Site: Warren Field, Philadelphia, Pa.
2010 Records: Cornell (21-8, 7-1 Ivy League); Penn (11-14, 6-2 Ivy League)
Series Record: Cornell leads 30-8
Last Meeting: Cornell won 13-4 (5 innings), April 12, 2009 in Ithaca, N.Y.

HEAD COACH DICK BLOOD
Head coach Dick Blood is in his 15th season at Cornell (499-216-1, .698) ... Blood is the first Jan Rock Zubrow '77 Head Coach of Softball.

---

ITHACA, N.Y. —  Playing some of its best softball of the 2010 season, the reigning Ivy League champion Big Red softball team will suit up for six games, including a four-game Ivy League set at Penn this weekend. With one win, Cornell head coach Dick Blood will become just the second coach in school history (in any sport) to record 500 career wins. He enters the weekend needing one victory to hit that milestone.

Blood, who ranks 17th all-time in NCAA Division I softball history in winning percentage (.698), will likely reach the milestone if his team continues to play the way it has been, winning 10 of its last 11 contests. Only Hall of Fame baseball coach Ted Thoren (541-520-11 in 29 years) surpassed Blood's victory total in one sport. Polo coach David Eldredge, who coaches both the men's and women's teams, has a Cornell record 674 combined wins.

Cornell will play a Thursday afternoon home doubleheader against Syracuse at Niemand•Robison Field beginning at 3 p.m., looking to avenge a sweep at the hands of the Orange a season ago. The Big Red will then play a pair of doubleheaders, one Saturday and one Sunday, at Penn. The Quakers enter the weekend just a game behind Cornell in the Ivy League South Division and will be looking to end the Big Red's eight-game win streak in the series.    

Cornell won all six games a week ago as the bats broke through and junior Elizabeth Dalrymple continued her dominance on the mound. The Big Red offense batted .369 and averaged more than seven runs per game in the perfect run. Eight regular starters batted over .300 during the week. Dalrymple went 3-0 and didn't allow an earned run in 21.1 innings, striking out 32 with just three walks.

ABOUT SYRACUSE
• Conference: Big East
• Head Coach: Leigh Ross (Toledo '92), fourth season at SU, 13th season overall.
• Syracuse brings in a 19-16 overall record (5-3 Big East) into Thursday's non-conference doubleheader. • The Orange have won five of their lat six contests, all in Big East play.
• Leading the offensive charge is Lisaira Daniels, who is batting .382 with six doubles, 18 RBI and 28 runs scored. She has been backed up by Veronica Grant (.330, 12 doubles, two home runs, 35 run scored) and Hallie Gibbs (.309, five doubles, two home runs, 29 RBI).
• Jenna Caira leads the way for SU on the mound, with a 9-8 record, a 2.78 ERA and 10 complete games in 16 starts. She had 152 strikeouts in 103.1 innings of work
• Head coach Leigh Ross has posted a 91-100 record in four seasons with the Orange and a 328-298-2 mark in 13 years as a head coach overall.

THE SERIES
• The Orange leads the series 10-8, including an Orange sweep of last season's doubleheader in Syracuse by decisive scores of 3-0 and 8-0.
• The losses snapped a three-game Cornell win streak in the series.
• The two teams first met in the 2000 season. 

ABOUT PENN
• Conference: The Ivy League
• Head Coach: Leslie King (Cal State-Fullerton '85), seventh season.
• The Quakers bring an 11-14 overall record into a Wednesday afternoon doubleheader with Lafayette.
• Penn enters the weekend a game behind Cornell in the South Division of the Ivy League with its 6-2 record.
• Alisha Prystowsky paces all Penn batters with her .329 average, eight foubles, two home runs and 14 RBI. Keiko Uraguchi is also batting better than .320 and has scored 13 runs for the Quaker offense.
• Chelsea Ott is 3-5 with a 2.75 ERA in a team-high 61.0 innings pitched. The Penn pitching staff is allowing opponents to hit .314 as a team with 13 home runs.
• Head coach Leslie King sports 258-270-2 mark directing the Quaker softball team.

THE SERIES
• The Big Red leads the all-time series 30-8, including winning eight straight meetings.
• Cornell swept last season's four-game series in Ithaca by a combined score of 38-15, including a pair of five-inning victories.

20-WINS A STAPLE
• Cornell won its 20th game of the season with a triumph in the doubleheader opener against Brown on April 11, extending its streak of 20-win seasons to 14.
• To put that in perspective, the next-longest active streak of 20-win seasons among Ivy teams is Harvard and Yale, who are each looking for their fifth straight year of reaching that marker in 2010.

HOME SWEET HOME
• Cornell is 42-7 at home over the last four seasons, including an impressive 17-1 mark in 2009.
• During that span, the Big Red is 25-5 in league action at Niemand•Robison Field.
• Cornell had a 14-game home game win streak in regular season conference play snapped with a 7-6 loss to Harvard.

HIT QUEEN
• Senior Alyson Intihar established a new Cornell career hit record with her second of two hits in a game one win over Brown on April 11.
• She surpassed Lauren May '05, who pounded out 226 hits in her four-year career.
• Intihar now leads the pack with 229 career hits and counting.
• Also climbining the charts is senior Elise Menaker with 209 hits, good for fourth all-time at Cornell.

CATCH THE FEVER
• The Big Red defense has been fantastic throughout the 2010 season, currently matching the school roecrod for fielding percentage in a season at .969.
• Cornell has just one error in its last four contests and just seven miscues in its last 12 contests.
• The Big Red has committed multiple errors in a game just seven times and has made 24 in 29 games as opposed to 50 by its opponents.
• In Ivy play, the Big Red has a .979 fielding percentage and has made just four errors in eight contests.

TOUGHEST TO PUNCH OUT
• Cornell senior Alyson Intihar enters the week as the toughest player to strike out in the country.
• Intihar is first nationally as the only player in the country who hasn't struck out in a game this season.
• Intihar hasn't been struck out in 102 at bats.
• Over her career, Intihar has struck out just 32 times in 596 at bats (once every 18.6 at bats).

OFFENSE COMING TO LIFE
• The Big Red is hitting .309 as a team, a mark that would rank fourth all-time at Cornell if maintained.
• It is hitting .357 in Ivy League play and averaging more than seven runs per game.
• After hitting a respectable .284 over the team's first 19 games, Cornell is hitting .354 in its last 10 contests.

CORNELL OFF TO BEST-EVER IVY START
• At 7-1, Cornell has matched its best start in Ivy League play.
• The Big Red has also matched the 7-1 start in the 1999 (11-1), 2007 (8-1) and 2008 (best-ever 16-1 start) seasons.

MOUND GAMES
• Junior Elizabeth Dalrymple, the reigning Ivy League Pitcher of the Year, has posted a 30-7 record over her last two seasons.
• She has been sensational in Ivy play this season, going a perfect 4-0 with a miniscule 1.48 ERA. She has surrendered just 22 hits in 28.1 innings while striking out 50 with three walks.
• Dalrymple has struck out double figure hitters in each of her four conference starts, including 14 in a win over Dartmouth.
• In her last five total starts, Dalrymple has 57 strikeouts and four walks in 34 innings pitched.
• She surpassed 300 career strikeouts with a 12 K effort in a win over Harvard and now has 348 to rank fourth all-time at Cornell.

NEXT UP
• The Big Red returns home to face Columbia in a pair of Ivy League doubleheaders on Saturday, April 24 and Sunday, April 25. First pitch for both days will happen at 12:30 p.m. at Niemand•Robison Field.