ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell baseball team will begin its pursuit of the 2011 Ivy League Gehrig Division crown this weekend, opening up Ivy League action with a pair of doubleheaders at Hoy Field. Cornell will face Yale in a twinbill on Saturday beginning at noon, while Sunday features the Big Red taking on Brown, also starting at 12 p.m. Live stats of both days' action and live streaming video of all four games will be available at CornellBigRed.com.

The Big Red is coming off a 9-5 loss on Wednesday to local rival Le Moyne, a game that saw Cornell surrender an early lead, claw its way back to within one run, only to have the Dolphins break it open with a three-run ninth. Freshman Chris Cruz and junior Marshall Yanzick both had a pair of hits on the day, while sophomore Chris Burke drove in a pair of runs.

On the year, the Big Red offense continues to be led by senior Mickey Brodsky and his .348 batting average, with Yanzick hitting .308 among regulars. Junior Frank Hager has a team-best 11 runs scored, followed closely by Yanzick and freshman Ryan Plantier, with junior Brian Billigen driving in a team-best nine runs to go along with three home runs on the season.

Jadd Schmeltzer leads the Big Red pitching staff with a 2.59 earned-run average in 24.1 innings of work, striking out 16 with nine walks to go with a 1-2 record. Fellow seniors Taylor Wood and Corey Pappel have also seen more than 25 innings of work this year, with Wood posting a 4.39 earned-run average and a 1-3 record to go along with 18 strikeouts to just five walks. Pappel has a 6.31 earned-run average and an 0-5 record in 25.2 innings, striking out a team-best 19 but also allowing 15 walks.

Yale opens up Ivy League play with a 10-8 overall record and a five-game winning streak after pummelling Quinnipiac on Wednesday, 14-0. Over that five-game winning streak, the Bulldogs are averaging nearly 13 runs per game. Trey Rallis leads the offense with a .318 batting average and is tied with Andy Megee with 15 runs driven in. Megee is also hitting .316 on the year for the Bulldogs. On the mound, Brook Hart leads the club with a 1.07 earned-run average in 25.1 innings of work, while Vinny Lally has a team-best 36 strikeouts in 30.2 innings of action.

Brown has found the early portion of the season as rough as Cornell has, entering the weekend with a 2-12 overall record, having lost six straight contests. John Sheridan leads the Brown offense with a .324 average, but the Bears as a team are hitting just .201 on the season. No player has more than eight runs scored or seven runs driven in this season. On the mound, Matthew Kimball has a team-best 3.15 earned-run average in 20 innings of work, with Connor Burke posting a team-best 12 strikeouts in 12 innings.

Following the weekend's action, Cornell closes out its six-game home stand with a non-league game on Wednesday against Binghamton. First pitch is scheduled for 3 p.m.

Notable:
- Only three of the eight Ivy League teams begin league play with a .500 overall record or better. In the Gehrig Division, Columbia is 9-9 on the year, while Rolfe Division opponents Dartmouth (.714) and Yale (.556) both have winning records.
- Despite the Big Red's 2-14 record, Cornell still ranks fifth in both team batting average and earned-run average. What is hurting Cornell is its fielding percentage, where the Big Red has committed a league-high 44 errors with a .932 fielding percentage, well back of seventh-place Princeton's .945 mark.
- Saturday's other league matchups include Brown playing at Princeton, Dartmouth playing at Columbia and Harvard at Penn. Sunday's contests will feature the Bulldogs at the Tigers, Big Green at the Quakers and the Crimson at the Lions.