BLACKSBURG, Va. — The baseball team has won all three of its season-starting series to post a 9-2 record coming into the final stops of its Spring Break trip this week. The Big Red is scheduled to play a pair of evening games Tuesday and Wednesday at Virginia Tech before wrapping up the nine-game jaunt to the Mid-Atlantic with a four-game set at Longwood.
 
VIRGINIA TECH SERIES INFORMATION
SITE: Blacksburg, Va. — Russ Chandler Stadium
2012 RECORDS: Cornell 9-2, Virginia Tech 15-6 (2-4 Atlantic Coast Conference)
SERIES RECORD: Virginia Tech leads, 2-1
LAST MEETING: Lost, 8-2, on March 15, 2003 at Blacksburg, Va.
GAME 1: 5:30 p.m; Tuesday, March 20, 2012
GAME 2: 5:30 p.m.; Wednesday, March 21, 2012
 
LONGWOOD SERIES INFORMATION
SITE: Farmville, Va. — Charles Buddy Bolding Stadium
2012 RECORDS: Cornell 9-2, Longwood 11-9
SERIES RECORD: None.
LAST MEETING: None.
GAME 1: 5:30 p.m; Thursday, March 22, 2012
GAMES 2-3: 4 p.m. (doubleheader); Friday, March 23, 2012
GAME 4: 1 p.m; Saturday, March 24, 2012
 
ABOUT THE BIG RED
Cornell is off to its first 9-2 start since 1991, having swept a four-games series at Maryland-Eastern Shore before winning three of four games at George Washington at two of three games at Delaware State. The team's 6-0 start is its first since 1906. An offensive outburst is a big reason why — the Big Red has a team batting average of .356 and eight regular players hitting .333 or higher.

THE HEAD COACH
In his fourth season as the Ted Thoren Head Coach of Baseball at Cornell University, Bill Walkenbach guided the Big Red to a share of its first division title since 2005 in his first season. Named head coach on Aug. 14, 2008, Walkenbach is in his second stint as a coach for the Big Red, having previously served as an assistant coach under current associate head coach Tom Ford from 2003-05. He returned to Cornell after spending three seasons as the head coach at Franklin & Marshall, guiding the Diplomats to an NCAA tournament berth in 2006 and a 69-42 record. Now in his seventh season as a collegiate head coach, Walkenbach has a career record of 123-117 (.513).

ABOUT VIRGINIA TECH
Virginia Tech (15-6) is coming off a series loss to No. 14 Georgia Tech over the weekend, with a 12-9 victory Saturday bookended by losses of 12-3 Friday and 9-1 Sunday in Atlanta. A four-game home sweep of Yale from March 3-4 was part of a six-game winning streak, with three of the victories over the Bulldogs featuring a margin of defeat in double digits. Chad Pinder is leading the team with a .383 batting average, highlighted by a team-high 13 dobules and 19 RBI. Kae Atwell is batting .378 with four home runs and 18 RBI, and Andrew Rash has a team-high five home runs already. Junior LHP John Mantiply is 3-0 with a 2.43 ERA through five starts and trails senior RHP Marc Zecchino (2-2, 4.75) for the team lead in strikeouts.
 
SERIES HISTORY
The teams have only locked horns in one series. The Big Red won the opener of the three-game set, 5-3, on March 14, 2003 before the Hokies responded the following day with a doubleheader sweep, 3-1 and 8-2.
 
ABOUT LONGWOOD
Longwood (11-9) is in its final independent season before it joins the Big South Conference next year. The Lancers were swept in a three-game series over the weekend at Campbell, ending a brief two-game winning streak enjoyed by beating Niagara in the final contest of a four-game set two weeks ago and a mid-week victory over visiting George Mason. Among regulars, senior Robby Newman has a team-best 20 runs, four homers, 19 RBI and .696 slugging percentage, and is tied for the team lead with a .406 batting average — shared with junior Justin Lacy. Junior RHP Kyle Morgan (2-2, 4.40) has started a team-high five games, with freshman LHP Brandon Vick (3-0, 3.42) and sophomore RHP Cory Ramsey (0-3, 14.25) starting two apiece.

GO LONG
Sophomore Chris Cruz started his season off with a bang against Maryland-Eastern Shore, smashing two home runs in Saturday's first game en route to a 15-4 victory, then he added two more roundtrippers the following weekend at George Washington. Now up to five home runs in just 11 games, Cruz has already eclipsed his total from the 2011 season.
 
THE HITS KEEP COMING
Senior Marshall Yanzick has at least one hit in all of the Big Red's 11 games this season. Including the final games of the 2011 season, Yanzick has extended his hit streak to 16 games.

AND THE AWARD GOES TO ...
Senior Brian Billigen was named the Ivy League Player of the Week on March 6. Batting third in the lineup, Billigen was 8-for-18 (.444) in the four games against Maryland-Eastern Shore with a .833 slugging percentage. He finished the weekend with six runs, two doubles, one triple, one home run, one stolen base and 10 RBI. In the span of two innings in the season-opener, Billigen recorded a three-run triple and a two-run double. In the series finale, he finished a triple shy of the cycle, going 4-for-5 with two runs, four RBIs and a stolen base. It was the first time a Cornellian won the award since Nate David shared the honor on April 28, 2009.

SAVING THE DAY
Senior Jeeter Ishida earned a save in his first appearance on March 3, working four innings of relief in a 15-4 victory over Maryland-Eastern Shore in his first game action since 2009. The Hawaii native was named the Honolulu Star-Bulletin State Player of the Year in 2006 and 2007, helping the Punahou School capture five straight state titles. Ishida appeared seven times as a freshman at Arizona State, then didn't pitch his sophomore season before transferring to Cornell. He had to sit out his junior year as per NCAA transfer rules.

UP NEXT
The Big Red to the Empire State for a doubleheader on Tuesday, March 27 at Albany before opening the Ivy League and home portion of its schedule the following weekend against Harvard and Dartmouth.