ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell baseball team will try to climb into the thick of the Ivy League Gehrig Division race this weekend when the Big Red heads to Dartmouth and Harvard for a pair of doubleheaders. Cornell and Dartmouth open the weekend's action with a twinbill on Saturday in Hanover, N.H., before the Big Red and Crimson battle on Sunday in Cambridge, Mass. First pitch of game one on both days is scheduled for noon.
Cornell enters the weekend with a 1-3 Ivy League record, fourth in the Gehrig Division. Penn and Princeton are tied for the divisional lead at 4-0 each after both teams captured sweeps last weekend. Columbia is third at 2-2 after losing twice to Dartmouth but taking a pair from Harvard last weekend. Cornell's 1-3 mark comes after being swept by the Bulldogs but splitting the two game series against Brown.
The Big Red's midweek contest against Binghamton was postponed on Wednesday due to rain, meaning Cornell will take its 3-17 overall record into the weekend series.
Offensively, Cornell is led by
Ben Swinford's .314 batting average, collecting eight runs and seven RBI on the year.
Marshall Yanzick (.313) and
Mickey Brodsky (.309) are also over .300 for the season among regulars, with Yanzick scoring 13 runs and driving in three. Brodsky, meanwhile, has eight runs scored to go along with a team-best 13 RBI.
Brian Billigen leads the team with four home runs to go along with a .290 batting average, 11 runs scored and 12 driven in with a .629 slugging percentage. Billigen has also hit safely in six straight games, the longest current hitting streak on the roster.
On the mound, the trio of
Jadd Schmeltzer,
Taylor Wood and
Corey Pappel have each turned in more than 30 innings of work. Schmeltzer leads the team with 24 strikeouts and a 3.60 earned-run average to go along with a 1-3 record. Wood has a team-high 33.2 innings pitched, coupled with a 4.81 earned-run average and 22 strikeouts with just seven walks. Pappel, meanwhile, has the only complete game on the season, with a 5.79 earned-run average and 22 strikeouts in 32.2 innings of work. In relief, both
Dan Lea and
Rick Marks have picked up one save on the season.
Dartmouth enters the weekend with a 2-2 Ivy League record and a 13-6 overall record after defeating Quinnipiac on Wednesday, 16-8. As a team, the Big Green is batting .333 on the season, with seven of the nine regulars batting over .300 on the year, including a pair - Ennis Coble and Joe Sclafani - batting over .400. Chris O'Dowd provides the power with five home runs while Coble and Sclafani share the team lead with 21 runs driven in. On the mound, Dartmouth has a team earned run average of 4.37 with three regular starters each having an ERA under 3.00. One of those, Kyle Hendricks, has fanned a team-best 34 batters with his 1.73 earned-run average.
Harvard, which plays Bryant on Thursday before playing host to Princeton on Saturday and Cornell on Sunday, has a 3-20 mark with an 0-4 Ivy League record heading into the weekend. The Crimson have lost six straight games heading into the matchup with Bryant. Jeff Reynolds lead the team with a .321 batting average, the only Harvard player over .300 on the year. Marcus Way has a team-best three home runs and 10 RBI and shares the team lead with Dillon O'Neill with 12 runs scored. On the mound, Max Perlman has been a bright spot for the Crimson, posting a 1.44 earned-run average in 31.1 innings of work, while Eric Eadington has a team-best 30 strikeouts in 27 innings.
Following this weekend's action, the Big Red will play a doubleheader at Le Moyne on April 13 before opening up Ivy League Gehrig Division play on April 16 at Columbia.
