The Ivy League-leading baseball team will take a break from conference play for the final time this regular season with a 4 p.m. Wednesday matchup with visiting Binghamton at Hoy Field. The Big Red is two wins shy of tying the program record, and sophomore outfielder Chris Cruz is also trying to set a program record for home runs in a season after recently tying the mark.
 
GAME INFORMATION
Binghamton at Cornell
SITE: Ithaca, N.Y. — Hoy Field
DAY: Wednesday, April 25, 2012
TIME: 4 p.m.
LIVE STATS: http://livestats.internetconsult.com/cornell/baseball/
2012 RECORDS: Cornell 27-11-1 (13-3 Ivy League); Binghamton 15-16 (6-2 America East)
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads, 17-11
LAST MEETING: Binghamton won, 6-4, on April 11, 2012 at Ithaca, N.Y.
 
ABOUT THE BIG RED
Cornell is coming off its second straight weekend of taking three of four from a Lou Gehrig Division rival after defeating Penn, 3-0, 9-5 and 3-0 before dropping Saturday's nightcap, 4-3. The Big Red started the season 6-0 for the first time since 1906, then rattled off a 10-game Ivy League winning streak to take a commanding Lou Gehrig Division lead going into the weekend. Cornell has shown a knack for late-game heroics, having won six games this season entering its final at-bat either trailing or tied. Offensively, the Big Red's. 293 batting average entering the week was 67th among 291 Division I teams in the country, its .424 slugging percentage is 52nd and its .387 on-base percentage is 45th. Four of the Big Red's regular players are currently hitting .315 or higher — seniors Brian Billigen (.380), Brandon Lee (.319) and Frank Hager (.319) and freshman Kevin Tatum (.315). Not to be ignored, Cornell's pitching staff has also been prominent in the early going, having surrendered just five home runs in 39 games and a no-hitter by sophomore Connor Kaufmann to its credit. Kaufmann then became the ninth pitcher in program history to toss two shutouts in the same season, hurling a three-hit blanking of Penn on Saturday.
 
MORE THAN JUST A LITTLE HISTORY
With its 3-0 victory over Penn in the opener of Saturday's doubleheader, the Big Red was 17 games over .500 for the first time in the program's 143-year history. Aside from other points during this season, Cornell's only other time at 16 games above the break-even mark was 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 five games still remaining in the regular season, the Big Red has already recorded the second-most wins in a season in its history. The record is the 29 wins from the aforementioned 1977 season.
 
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 143-125-1 (.533).
 
ABOUT BINGHAMTON
The Bearcats are part of a three-way logjam atop the America East standings despite being picked to finish fourth in the six-team conference in the coaches' preseason poll. The team is still one game below .500, but it's won seven of its last nine contests — including the April 11 game against Cornell at Hoy Field. … Senior RHP Mike Augliera and junior RHP Jake Lambert are two of the team's top three starters, having pitched over the weekend. Junior RHP Jay Lynch (2-3, 6.34) is the team's No. 3 starter, but he did not pitch over the weekend with rain washing out one of the Bearcats' doubleheaders against Maine. … Junior RHP Lee Sosa (0-0, 0.82) has all seven of the Bearcats' saves and leads the team in appearances out of the bullpen with 11. … Freshman 1B/3B Brian Ruby has been scorching hot for the Bearcats, taking over the the team lead in batting average (.423). Starting with the game April 11 at Cornell, Ruby is 13-for-23 (.565) with five runs and five RBI over the last seven games. His overall hit streak currently stands at 10 games. … Freshman RF Zach Blanden, from nearby Homer, is second on the team with a .354 batting average and third with a .420 on-base percentage, but he traditionally bats out of the No. 9 spot. … Freshman C Jake Thomas (.317, six 2Bs, two HRs, 18 RBI, 23 BBs), senior 1B/LF Dave Ciocchi (.267, six 2Bs, one HR, 19 RBI) and junior 1B Jordon Smucker (.343, seven 2Bs, three 3Bs, 16 RBI) frequently make up the heart of the order.
 
WELCOME “HOME”
Due to renovations at its home field, Binghamton is playing all of its games this season on the road or at neutral sites. Ten of the Bearcats' 10 scheduled home games were scheduled for Cornell's Hoy Field. Binghamton swept Maine in a doubleheader on Sunday at Hoy, but the teams' second doubleheader was cancelled due to inclement weather. The Bearcats are also slated for three games May 5-6 against Stony Brook, but those games might be moved if the Ivy League Championship Series is hosted by Cornell.
 
SERIES HISTORY vs. BINGHAMTON
The Bearcats defated the Big Red, 6-4, on April 17 at Hoy Field in a game that featured 15 pitchers. Chris Cruz hit a monster two-run home run in the sixth inning and made a diving catch from his post in right field during the seventh inning. Binghamton scored the decisive two runs on two Cornell errors in the eighth inning. Inclement weather washed out both games between the regional rivals last year, with the Big Red winning the previous meeting by a 12-8 score on April 28, 2010 on the road. The teams first met in 1984, with the Big Red sweeping a doubleheader at Vestal, N.Y.
 
UNHITTABLE
Sophomore RHP 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.
 
DON'T BE FOOLED
Sophomore RHP Connor Kaufmann has a 3.27 ERA, but he's been a lot better than even that number would indicate. Throw away his worst start of the year in March at Delaware State and Kaufmann is 6-0 with a 1.67 ERA. In four Ivy League starts, Kaufmann is 3-0 with a 0.66 ERA, including an eight-inning complete game without surrendering an unearned run on April 15 against Columbia and three-hit shutout on April 21 at Penn. The effort against Columbia earned him Ivy League Pitcher of the Week for the second time this season.

CRUZ CONTROL
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 11 home runs in 39 games, Cruz is just the third Cornellian to reach double-digits in home runs in a season. He has tied the program record, originally set by Eric Kirby in 1995 and matched in 2002 by Erik Rico. Cruz's 11 home runs leads the Ivy League and is just five off the national lead, shared by Eastern Tennessee's Matthew Scruggs and Samford's Brandon Miller.
 
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 46 hits with a .380 batting average and .620 slugging percentage, both ranking second in the Ivy League.
 
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
Cornell is closing in on tripling its win total from last season, with an impact freshman class making its mark. Freshman RHP Kellen Urbon leads the team with 17 appearances out of the bullpen, and he has set a program record with nine saves and a miniscule 0.78 earned-run average. Opposing hitters are hitting just .175 against Urbon, but he is more than just a closer. Urbon pitched five scoreless innings of relief in the Big Red's 11-inning victory over Brown on April 7, with just one runner advancing past first base. … On the starters' side, freshman RHP Brian McAfee is 6-0 with a sterling 35:5 walk-to-strikeout ratio, which ranks 14th in the country. He tossed eight shutout innings with three strikeouts in a 3-0 victory over Columbia on April 15, earning Ivy League Co-Rookie of the Week honors. McAfee took a no-hitter into the fifth inning and yielded just three hits on the day. He followed up that effort by working into the eighth inning Saturday against Penn.
 
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. Ishida then made his first collegiate start on April 17 against Siena, tossing three scoreless innings.

UP NEXT
The Big Red will attempt to lock up both the Ivy League's Lou Gehrig Division title and home-field advantage in the league championship series with at least one victory in a four-game series with Princeton over the weekend. The Tigers are scheduled to visit Hoy Field for a noon doubleheader on Friday before the teams travel south for a noon doubleheader rematch on Sunday at Princeton.