Game Notes I Live Stats

GAME INFORMATION
Games #36-39: Columbia vs. Cornell
First Pitch: Saturday, April 24, at 12:30 p.m., Sunday, April 25, at 12:30 p.m.
Site: Niemand•Robison Field, Ithaca, N.Y.
2010 Records: Columbia (10-25, 2-10 Ivy League); Cornell (24-11, 10-2 Ivy League)
Series Record: Cornell leads 19-7
Last Meeting: Cornell won 14-2 (6 innings), April 19, 2009 in New York, N.Y.

HEAD COACH DICK BLOOD
Head coach Dick Blood is in his 15th season at Cornell (502-219-1, .696) ... Blood is the first Jan Rock Zubrow '77 Head Coach of Softball.

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ITHACA, N.Y. —  The Big Red softball team, fresh off its third straight winning Ivy League weekend, will attempt to stretch out its three-game advantage in the Ivy League South Division when it meets Columbia for a pair of doubleheaders this weekend. Cornell's six seniors will be on full display as the team plays its final full regular season home weekend beginning with 12:30 p.m. doubleheaders on both Saturday, April 24 and Sunday, April 25 at Niemand•Robison Field.  

Head coach Dick Blood, who became the second coach in the storied history of Big Red athletics to win 500 games with one team with last weekend's victory over Penn, will honor the program's six seniors, who have helped Cornell to a 141-48. With 12 regular season games and potential postseason play still in the mix, the group is in striking distance of matching or surpassing the class of 2009 as the all-time winningest group in Cornell history. That group went a combined 149-60 in their four seasons together.

Among the group of six seniors are an Ivy League Player of the Year and the school's career hits leader (Alyson Intihar), a two-time first-team All-Ivy and Academic All-District selection (Elise Menaker), a first-team All-Ivy and NFCA Mid-Atlantic All-Region pick who is fourth on Cornell's batting average list (Ashley Garvey), a four-year starter who split time at second base and in the outfield (Devon March), a three-year starting catcher (Vanessa Leonhard) and a key reserve who has played in 76 career contests with 41 starts (Izzy Pines).

The Big Red owns a three-game lead on Penn and a comfortable six-game bulge on third-place Princeton with eight games to play, but can't overlook a Lions squad that won one game and against Cornell a season ago and is hitting .274 as a team, second in the Ancient Eight.

ABOUT COLUMBIA
• Conference: The Ivy League
• Head Coach: Kayla Noonan (Hofstra '98), eighth season.
• The Lions bring a 10-25 record (2-10 Ivy) into a Thursday afternoon doubleheader with Rider.
• Columbia is 2-8 in its last 10 games, but has scored 4.1 runs per game during that stretch.
• The Lions have a potent offense with seven regulars hitting .275 or better entering the week. Leading the way is All-Ivy candidate Kayla Lechler (.347, six doubles, three home runs, 22 RBI).
• Opponents are hitting .322 against Columbia pitching, with both Maureen O'Kane (4-10, 3.60 ERA) and Maggie Johnson (5-10, 4.66 ERA) pitching a majority of the innings.
• Head coach Kayla Noonan sports 154-217-1 mark directing the Lions softball team.

THE SERIES
• The Big Red leads the all-time series 19-7, including 13 of the last 15 meetings between the teams.
• Cornell won three of four contests last season in New York City en route to the Ivy League South Division title, which it clinched during the second day doubleheader sweep.

30-WINS A STAPLE
• Cornell has won 24 games so far this season and is heading for the 30-win plateau for the fifth straight year and the 13th time in the last 14 years. The lone year it didn't reach that mark during that stretch was in 2005 when it went 29-17-1.
• To put that in perspective, no other team in the conference has an active streak of 30-win seasons among Ivy teams, and while Cornell has done it 13 times in the last 14 years, the other seven Ancient Eight schools have reached that mark just 11 times combined in the same span.

SENIOR WEEKEND
• Cornell's six seniors will be honored in a ceremony prior to Sunday's 12:30 p.m. doubleheader against Columbia.
• The Big Red's six seniors are Ashley Garvey, Alyson Intihar, Vanessa Leonhard, Devon March, Elise Menaker and Izzy Pines.

HOME SWEET HOME
• Cornell is 42-9 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 is batting .457 in Ivy play this season (21-of-46) and has had multiple hits in five of her last six conference tilts.
• She is 14-for-24 (.583) in her last six Ancient Eight starts.
• Intihar now leads the pack with 239 career hits and counting.
• Also climbining the charts is senior Elise Menaker with 216 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 record for fielding percentage in a season at .968.
• Cornell has just two errors in its last four contests and just 13 miscues in its last 18 contests.
• The Big Red has committed multiple errors in a game just 10 times and has made 30 in 35 games as opposed to 62 by its opponents.
• In Ivy play, the Big Red has a .979 fielding percentage and has made just six errors in 12 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 with just one strikeout in 126 at bats.
• Over her career, Intihar has struck out just 33 times in 620 at bats (once every 18.8 at bats).

OFFENSE COMING TO LIFE
• The Big Red is hitting .307 as a team, a mark that would rank fifth all-time at Cornell if maintained.
• It is hitting .355 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 .333 in its last 16 contests.

MOUND GAMES
• Junior Elizabeth Dalrymple, the reigning Ivy League Pitcher of the Year, has posted a 32-7 record over her last two seasons.
• Dalrymple pitched the program's eighth no-hitter against Penn on April 18, allowing only two walks in a seven-inning complete game. She struck out eight in the contest.
• It was the second no-hitter Dalrymple has been a part of, as she combined with Jenn Meunier on a five-inning no-hitter against Norfolk State on March 9. 2008.
• The no-hitter earned her Ivy League Pitcher of the Week honors and was just the seventh no-hitter to go a full seven innings, joining Julie Westbrock against Towson in 1999 and Sarah Sterman against Penn in 2003.
• She has been sensational in Ivy play this season, going a perfect 6-0 with a miniscule 1.79 ERA. She has surrendered just 32 hits in 43.0 innings while striking out 67 with six walks.
• Dalrymple has struck out at least eight hitters in each of her six conference starts, including 14 in a win over Dartmouth.
• She surpassed 300 career strikeouts with a 12 K effort in a win over Harvard and now has 367 to rank fourth all-time at Cornell.

RECORD CHASERS
• Several Cornell players are moving up on season and career records.
• With her 14 doubles in 2010, senior Elise Menaker is three shy of classmate Alyson Intihar's mark of 17 set in 2008. She only needs one to match Tracy Quinn for the career mark, bringing 47 into the weekend. Just behind is Intihar with 45.
• With eight home runs, freshman Kristen Towne is close to becoming the 12th player to hammer at least 10 homers in a season.
• Junior Elizabeth Dalrymple needs 31 strikeouts to knock off her school record total of 174 set in 2009.

NEXT UP
• Cornell heads across town to meet Ithaca College on Wednesday, April 28 on the South Hill campus beginning at 3:30 p.m.
• The Big Red closes out the Ivy League regular season with a home-and-home series against Princeton. Cornell will play host to the Tigers on Friday, April 30 at 2 p.m., then will head to New Jersey for a Sunday doubleheader beginning at 12:30 p.m.