ITHACA, N.Y. -- After spending the first 15 games on the road, the Cornell baseball team will finally open the home portion of the 2011 season on Wednesday when the Big Red plays host to LeMoyne in a 3:00 p.m. contest at Hoy Field. Wednesday's contest begins a stretch of six straight home games for the Big Red.

The Big Red has struggled during the early portion of the season, entering Wednesday's home opener with a 2-13 overall record, though Cornell has shown signs of turning things around with the team's return north from the spring break trip to Virginia and North Carolina. The offense has banged out double-digit hit totals in three of the last four games, something that happened just twice in the first 11 contests of the year.

At the plate, senior Mickey Brodsky has gotten off to a strong start, leading the team with a .355 batting average, while freshman Ben Swinford is second, hitting .308 on the year. Junior Brian Billigen leads the club in both home runs (three) and runs batted in (nine), with classmate Frank Hager scoring a team-best 10 runs. As a team, the Big Red is batting .248.

On the mound, seniors Jadd Schmeltzer, Taylor Wood and Corey Pappel have seen the most innings, with all three working at least 23 innings in four starts. Schmeltzer has a team-best 2.59 earned-run average with a 1-2 record, while Wood has a 4.56 earned-run average and a 1-3 mark. Pappel has an 0-4 record with his 5.32 earned-run average, but also has a team-best 18 strikeouts on the year. Cornell pitchers have combined for a 6.15 earned-run average, with opposing hitters batting .312 on the season.

Cornell's opponent, LeMoyne, is off to a 5-17 start on the season, playing a twinbill with Bucknell on Tuesday in Syracuse, N.Y., before Wednesday's contest at Cornell. Pat Wiese has a team-best .283 average for the Dolphins, while Brian Stinson, Ryan Mahoney and Kody O'Connor share the team lead with a pair of home runs. O'Connor has also driven in a team-best 16 runs on the season, with Mahoney scoring 13 times to pace the squad. On the mound, Mark Kuzma has a 3.63 earned-run average in 34.2 innings of work, with Ed Kohout and Derek Zielinski providing the power arms with 28 strikeouts each to lead the club. No pitcher has more than one victory on the season for the Dolphins. Opposing batters are hitting .305 off LeMoyne pitching this season.

With Wednesday's game bridging the gap between the close of the Big Red's spring break trip on March 25 and the start of Ivy League play this weekend, a number of pitchers are expected to get work on the mound for Cornell.

Following the game against the Dolphins, Cornell opens up Ivy League play on Saturday with a doubleheader against Yale, with first pitch of game one slated for 12 p.m. Cornell will then take on Brown on Sunday, also with a pair of contests and a noon start.

Notables
- Mickey Brodsky enters the game with the longest hitting streak on the squad at five games. Frank Hager has the longest hitting streak of the season at eight games.
- Cornell's defense has struggled in the early going, committing 42 errors through the first 15 games. The Big Red is 0-12 this season when committing two or more errors in a game.
- Junior shortstop Marshall Yanzick is the only player on the roster to have started every game this season in the same position. Freshman Ben Swinford and Mickey Brodsky have started all 15 games, with Swinford earning 12 starts in left field and three at third base. Brodsky, meanwhile, has started eight times at first base, six times in right field and once at designated hitter.
- Brodsky, meanwhile, is the only player whose spot in the batting order has remained the same for every game, batting in the three hole in all 15 contests.