ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell baseball team enters the heart of the Ivy League season this weekend, opening up Gehrig Division play with a four-game set at in-state rival Columbia. The Big Red and the Lions will play doubleheaders on both Saturday and Sunday, with the first pitch of game one scheduled for noon both days.

Cornell enters the weekend looking to make up ground in the divisional race, posting a 2-6 record through the first two weekends of league play. Columbia is 3-5 in league play, with both clubs trailing co-leaders Penn and Princeton, who have a 6-2 mark in the league. 

The Big Red is hitting .254 as a team on the season, led by Mickey Brodsky's .320 average. Marshall Yanzick and Brian Billigen are also hitting better than .300 on the year, with Yanzick posting a .303 average and Billigen hitting .300 for the season. Billigen also leads the team in home runs (seven), runs scored (19) and runs driven in (17). Brodsky has 16 runs batted in, while Yanzick has scored 14 runs. Frank Hager has also scored 18 runs on the season while hitting .253.

Cornell pitchers have combined for a 6.34 earned-run average, while opposing hitters are batting .312 against Big Red pitching. The starting trio of Jadd Schmeltzer, Taylor Wood and Corey Pappel have combined for 153.1 of the 208.2 innings pitched on the year. Schmeltzer has a 4.64 earned-run average in 33 innings of work, striking out 27. Wood has posted a 5.01 earned-run average and a team-best 32 strikeouts, while Pappel has a 5.08 earned-run average and 25 strikeouts. Connor Kaufmann has gotten the fourth start in each of the last two weekends, posting a 4.50 earned-run average with four strikeouts in eight innings in league play.

Cornell's opponent this weekend, Columbia, enters the week with a 12-15 overall record and will play Manhattan on Wednesday before facing the Big Red this weekend. The Lions are hitting .284 as a team, led by Dario Pizzano's .404 average. Fellow regulars Nick Cox (.387) and Alex Godshall (.359) are also hitting over .300 on the season. Cox has a team-best 26 runs while Pizzano has a team-high 24 runs driven in. Cox has also been a menace on the basepaths this season, stealing 13 bases in 14 attempts. Jason Banos and Nick Ferraresi share the team lead with three home runs each.

On the mound, Columbia's pitchers have combined for a 3.70 earned-run average, allowing opposing hitters just a .247 batting average. Columbia's three most frequent starters have been Dan Bracey, Geoff Whitaker and Pat Lowery, with Bracey posting a 3.82 earned-run average and 20 strikeouts in 33 innings. Whitaker has pitched the most innings on the team at 36.2, posting a 4.42 earned-run average and 27 strikeouts, while Lowery has a team-best 30 strikeouts in 33.2 innings with a 5.08 earned-run average. The team's fourth starter has been Stefan Olson, who has a sparkling 1.55 earned-run average in 29 innings, striking out 23 in four starts.

Last season's four-game series with the Lions was a 2-2 split at Hoy Field, with Cornell taking the first and last games of the series. The Big Red won the opener, 1-0, behind a strong start of 6.1 scoreless innings by Pappel, and the Big Red pushed across the winning run in the bottom of the seventh. The finale of the series was shortened to six innings due to rain, but the Big Red still came away with the 7-0 shutout.

Notable
- Billigen continues to lead the Ivy League with seven home runs, two clear of the four players chasing him. His total is also tied for seventh all-time in a single season at Cornell, with six other players posting seven home runs in a season, including, most recently, Raul Gomez in 2001. The record for home runs in a season is 11, held by Eric Kirby in 1995 and Erik Rico in 2002.
- Mickey Brodsky is climbing the charts in career doubles, as the senior enters this weekend with 30 two-base hits for his career. He ranks ninth all-time, and would move up to a tie for seventh with three more. 
- Another senior is making a few appearances in Cornell's all-time records, as Corey Pappel is 10th in strikeouts per nine innings, averaging nearly eight per nine innings. He is also ranked tied for ninth in games started with 29.