Fresh off its first road Ivy League weekend sweep since the league began play in 1993, the baseball team will kick off a seven-game homestand with a 4 p.m. Wednesday contest against regional rival Binghamton at Hoy Field.
 
GAME INFORMATION
Binghamton at Cornell
SITE: Ithaca, N.Y. — Hoy Field
DAY: Wednesday, April 7, 2012
TIME: 4 p.m.
LIVE STATS: http://livestats.internetconsult.com/cornell/baseball/
2012 RECORDS: Cornell 21-6-1 (7-1 Ivy); Binghamton 9-14 (1-2 America East)
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads, 17-10
LAST MEETING: Cornell won, 12-8, on April 28, 2010 at Vestal, N.Y.
 
ABOUT THE BIG RED
Cornell started the season 6-0 for the first time since 1906 and hasn't let up since. Cornell gave itself sole possession of first place in the Ivy League's Lou Gehrig Division with a pair of doubleheader sweeps last weekend at Brown and at Yale. It was just the third time in the Ivy League's 20 years of baseball in which the Big Red won all four games in a weekend — and the first time Cornell has accomplished the feat on the road. The other two occasions were both at Hoy Field, where the Big Red defeated Penn in four straight April 23-24, 2005 and then two each from Harvard and Dartmouth April 1-2, 1994. Cornell needed some late-game heroics to win all of its games over the weekend, scoring in the final innings of all four contests. Sophomore Tom D'Alessandro scored the winning run in the 11th inning of the first game against Brown. With the Big Red down to its final out the next day at Yale, sophomore Chris Cruz hit a three-run home run to spur an 5-3 victory over the Bulldogs. Cornell then scored four in the top of the ninth in the nightcap to win 8-6. The Big Red bats are a large reason why the team is off to such a hot start. The team's. 312 batting average is 17th among 291 Division I teams in the country, its .403 on-base percentage is 12th and its .454 slugging percentage is 15th. Seven of the Big Red's regular players are hitting .308 or higher, and the team has an average of three extra-base hits per game. The Big Red is also 19th in the nation with an average of 7.1 runs per game as of Sunday. Not to be ignored, Cornell's pitching staff has also been prominent in the early going, having surrendered just three home runs in 28 games and a no-hitter by sophomore Connor Kaufmann to its credit.
 
MORE THAN JUST A LITTLE HISTORY
The Big Red is 15 games over .500 for just the second time in the program's 143-year history. The only other time Cornell was in a similar position was in a three-game span in 1977. A 10-7 victory in 12 innings over St. John's on May 26 in the program's first NCAA tournament appearance pulled the Big Red's record up to 28-13. Cornell won the next game, 9-7, vs. UConn, but the season ended after a pair of losses the next day to Temple and St. John's. The Big Red hasn't been to NCAAs since. With 14 games still remaining in the regular season, the Big Red has already surpassed its win total from each of the last 20 years.

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 137-121-1 (.531).
 
ABOUT BINGHAMTON
The Bearcats ended a four-game losing streak and avoided getting swept by Stony Brook with a 5-2 victory on Saturday. Stony Brook won the first two games of the series to kick off the teams' America East schedule. Binghamton was picked to finish fourth in the six-team conference in the coaches' preseason poll after finishing third last season. … Senior RHP Mike Augliera, junior RHP Jay Lynch and junior RHP Jake Lambert are the team's top three starters, having pitched over the weekend. Of the remaining pitchers who have started games this season for the Bearcats, only freshman RHP Anthony Grillini (1-0, 2.25 ERA) and sophomore RHP Jack Rogalla (2-0, 3.57) have thrown at least five innings in an outing. … Though he leads the team with a .390 average and .458 slugging percentage, freshman RF Zach Blanden traditionally bats out of the No. 9 spot. He is from nearby Homer. … Freshman C Jake Thomas (.338, six 2Bs, 13 RBI, 16 BBs), senior 1B/LF Dave Ciocchi (.236, 10 RBI) and junior 1B Jordon Smucker (.325, five 2Bs, 12 RBI) frequently make up the heart of the order. … Junior RHP Lee Sosa (0-0, 1.17) has all three of the Bearcats' saves and is tied for the team lead in appearances out of the bullpen with freshman RHP Greg Ostner (0-0, 6.48).
 
WELCOME “HOME”
Due to renovations at its home field, Binghamton is playing all of its games this season outside of Broome County. The Bearcats have 10 home games on their schedule this season, with seven of them scheduled to be staged at Cornell's Hoy Field — two doubleheaders April 21-22 against Maine and three games May 5-6 against Stony Brook, provided that the latter dates won't conflict with the Ivy League Championship Series.
 
SERIES HISTORY vs. BINGHAMTON
Inclement weather washed out both games between the regional rivals last year, with the Big Red winning the most recent meeting by a 12-8 score on April 28, 2010 on the road. Binghamton won the earlier meeting in the season between the two teams in 12 innings, 10-9. Brian Billigen was 4-for-8 with a double, home run and four RBI over the two games. Frank Hager also homered in the first game.The teams first met in 1984, with the Big Red sweeping a doubleheader at Vestal, N.Y.
 
UNHITTABLE
Sophomore Connor Kaufmann tossed the program's first no-hitter in nearly 32 years on a dreary Sunday against Dartmouth. He needed just 80 pitches to mow down the Big Green for seven innings on a day in which the mound was under constant repair due to a steady rain. Kaufmann faced the minimum 21 batters, retiring the final 16 consecutively after walks in the first and second innings. No runner advance past first base — the first was doubled off on a flyout to right, then the second was picked off by Kaufmann. For his efforts, Kaufmann became the first Cornellian to be tabbed as the Ivy League Pitcher of the Week since Corey Pappel on April 28, 2009. The last Big Red no-hitter was tossed by Kerry Brooks, Rob Wilson and Doug Petillo against Rochester on April 5, 1989 in another seven-inning affair. The last solo no-hitter for Cornell was April 8, 1979, when Greg Myers worked five innings in a 1-0 victory over Canisius. To find the last Big Red solo no-hitter of at least seven innings, you would have to go back to Larry Rafalski's nine-inning blanking of Hartwick on April 25, 1968.

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 eight home runs in 28 games, Cruz has already matched last season's team-leading total posted by Brian Billigen and is tied for fifth in program history for roundtrippers in a season. With two more home runs, Cruz would become the first Cornellian to reach double-digits in home runs in a season since Erik Rico hit 11 in 2002 — which is also tied for the program record (Eric Kirby also hit 11 home runs in 1995).
 
THE HITS KEEP COMING
The Big Red has already had two lengthy hitting streaks come and go this season. Senior shortstop Marshall Yanzick had a 19-game hitting streak — which dated back to late 2011 — snapped March 23 at Longwood. Then classmate Brian Billigen had a 16-game hitting streak halted March 31, a stretch that included nine games with multiple hits. Billigen has 40 hits with a gaudy .408 batting average, which ranks 23rd in the country, and a .694 slugging percentage, which ranks 19th. Sophomore Ben Swinford has the team's longest active hitting streak at six games. He has 10 hits and six RBI over that span.
 
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.
 
FANTASTIC FRESHMEN ARMS
Cornell has already more than doubled its win total from last season, with an impact freshman class making its mark in the early going. Freshman RHP Kellen Urbon is tied for the team lead with 12 appearances out of the bullpen, and he has five saves with a miniscule 0.50 earned-run average and opponents hitting just .113 against him. Even though he leads the team with five saves, Urbon is more than just a closer — he pitched five scoreless innings of relief in the Big Red's 11-inning victory over Brown on Saturday, with just one runner advancing past first base. … On the starters' side, freshman RHP Brent Jones leads the team with 30 strikeouts had three complete games in March. Freshman RHP Brian McAfee is 4-0 with a sterling 29:4 walk-to-strikeout ratio.

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 continues its seven-game homestand with three doubleheaders in a four-day span, starting with its first four Gehrig Division games April 14-15 against Columbia. Siena then visits Hoy Field for a twinbill at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, April 17.