ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell baseball team will play its first game at Hoy Field in nearly three weeks when the Big Red opens up a four-game homestand against Ivy League Gehrig Division rival Penn on Saturday afternoon. Cornell will face the Quakers in a pair of doubleheaders on Saturday and Sunday, with the first pitch of game one both days scheduled for noon.

The Big Red enters the weekend with a slim chance remaining of winning the divisional crown, but any hopes of claiming the program's third divisional title start with Cornell taking all four games against the Quakers this weekend. Cornell enters the weekend with a 3-9 mark in Ivy League play, six games behind league-leading Princeton. Penn is two games back of the Tigers at 7-5 in league play after dropping three of four against Princeton last weekend in Philadelphia. Columbia enters the weekend in third in the division with a 6-6 mark.

For the season, Cornell's offense is hitting .255 in 32 games, led by Mickey Brodsky's .325 average. Brodsky is the only Cornell regular to be hitting better than .300, though Brenton Peters (.293), Brian Billigen (.289) and Marshall Yanzick (.286) are within striking distance of that mark. Billigen leads the team in home runs with seven and runs driven in with 21, while sharing the team lead in runs scored with Frank Hager, with both players coming across the plate 22 times. Brodsky has a team-best eight doubles on the year to go along with a pair of home runs.

On the mound, Big Red pitching has combined for a 6.30 earned-run average with 188 strikeouts in 247.1 innings of work. Cornell's three primary starters - Jadd Schmeltzer, Taylor Wood and Corey Pappel - have combined for 129 and a third innings pitched and 93 of the team's strikeouts. Schmeltzer has a 4.38 earned-run average in 39 innings, fanning 30, with a 1-4 record. Wood is 2-5 on the year with 36 strikeouts and a 5.21 earned-run average in 46.2 innings, while Pappel has worked 43.2 innings and struck out 27 to go along with a 5.77 earned-run average and an 0-7 record. Cornell's fourth starter this weekend is likely to be freshman Connor Kaufmann, who has a 1-1 record with a 4.05 earned-run average in 20 innings of work. Dan Lea and Rick Marks each have one save on the season out of the bullpen.

Penn enters the weekend with a 16-16 overall record and is hitting .290 as a team on the season, led by Jeremy Maas' .375 batting average. Maas is one of five regulars batting better than .300 on the year, and also leads the Quakers in runs scored (28) and shares the team lead in runs driven in with Will Davis (23 each). Davis also has a .316 batting average and 14 doubles to lead the team in that category. Spencer Branigan has a team-best six home runs, while both Maas and Davis have four home runs on the year.

Penn pitchers have combined to post a 4.19 earned-run average on the year, led by a 2.39 mark from starter Paul Cusick, who has a 4-2 record and 62 strikeouts in 52.2 innings of work. Vince Voiro has struck out 50 in 48 innings with a 3-4 mark and a 3.38 earned-run average. Matt Gotschall (1-1, 4.96) and Chris McNulty (1-3, 5.56) are the two other projected starters on the weekend for the Quakers. Cody Thomson has a 5-5 mark and two saves out of the bullpen for Penn.

Last year's series with the Quakers featured a pair of doubleheader sweeps in Philadelphia, as Penn claimed both of the Saturday games before Cornell responded with two wins on Sunday, including a 10-9 win in nine innings in the first game. All-time, Penn holds a 140-106-2 lead in the series with the Big Red.

Following the series with the Quakers, Cornell will return to the road for three games, taking on Binghamton on Tuesday, April 26, before facing Princeton in a doubleheader on Friday, April 29. Cornell then closes out the regular season with three home contests, facing the Tigers on Sunday, May 1, and Binghamton on Wednesday, May 4.

Notable
- Freshman Chris Cruz has the longest current hitting streak on the team at five games. Mickey Brodsky and Frank Hager share the team lead for the longest streaks of the season at eight games each.
- Mickey Brodsky is climbing up the career lists in several categories, ranking in the top 10 in on-base percentage (eighth, .426), games started (t-fifth, 147), at-bats (ninth, 516), hits (t-fifth, 174), doubles (seventh, 34), and times hit by pitch (t-second, 22). He is tied in hits with current head coach Bill Walkenbach, and is just 11 hits shy of tying the school record of 185, held by Marlin McPhail, who played at Cornell from 1979-82.
- Not to be outdone, Brian Billigen is also making several appearances in the top 10 lists. Billigen ranks fourth all-time in slugging percentage (.554) and triples (10).
- On the mound, Corey Pappel is tied for fourth all-time in games started, having gotten the call 32 times in his career. He needs two more starts to move into second all-time in that category. Pappel also ranks tied for sixth all-time in strikeouts with 158.