The baseball team will wrap up the interdivision portion of its Ivy League schedule this weekend with a trip to Brown and Yale for a pair of doubleheaders on Saturday and Sunday, respectively. The Big Red is part of a four-way tie atop the Gehrig Division standings after going 3-1 in the opening weekend of league play.
 
BROWN SERIES INFORMATION
SITE: Providence, R.I. — Murray Stadium
2012 RECORDS: Cornell 17-6-1 (3-1 Ivy); Brown 4-18 (2-2 Ivy)
SERIES RECORD: Brown leads, 57-52-2
LAST MEETING: Split, on April 3, 2011 at Ithaca, N.Y. Cornell lost 5-2, then won 13-8.
DAY: Saturday, April 7, 2012
TIME: First game at noon; second game approximately 30 minutes after completion of first game
LIVE STATS: http://livestats.prestosports.com/brown/
 
YALE SERIES INFORMATION
SITE: West Haven, Conn. — Yale Field
2012 RECORDS (heading into Saturday's games): Cornell 17-6-1 (3-1 Ivy); Yale 6-18-1 (0-4 Ivy)
SERIES RECORD: Yale leads, 99-66
LAST MEETING: Yale swept, 7-2 and 5-3, on April 2, 2011 at Ithaca, N.Y.
DAY: Sunday, April 8, 2012
TIME: First game at noon; second game approximately 30 minutes after completion of first game
LIVE STATS: http://livestats.prestosports.com/yale/
 
ABOUT THE BIG RED
Cornell started the season 6-0 for the first time since 1906 and hasn't let up since. The Big Red is coming off a Wednesday doubleheader split at Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference preseason favorite Canisius, meaning Cornell hasn't lost its last four series. Before the Canisius trip, Cornell had a thrilling opening weekend of Ivy League play in which it rallied from a six-run deficit to defeat Harvard, and then got a no-hitter from sophomore Connor Kaufmann as part of a two-game sweep of four-time defending Ivy League Rolfe Division champion Dartmouth. It's just the second time in the last 17 years that Cornell has won at least three of its first four Ivy League games, and the team has now lost just twice in its last 11 games (8-2-1). The Big Red bats are a large reason why the team is off to such a hot start. The team's. 318 batting average as of Sunday was 16th among 291 Division I teams in the country. All nine of the Big Red's regular players are hitting .281 or higher, and the team has an average of more than three extra-base hits per game. The Big Red was also 17th in the nation with an average of 7.2 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 two home runs in 24 games and the no-hitter by Kaufmann to its credit.

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 133-121-1 (.524).

ABOUT BROWN
The Bears are leading the Ivy League Red Rolfe Division with a 2-2 mark after splitting with Penn and Columbia last weekend, but the squad has lost three in a row after getting swept in a pair of seven-inning games against visiting Siena on Wednesday. The Saints, who visit Hoy Field for two games on April 17, never trailed during the doubleheader. … Brown has hovered around .500 in Ivy League play over the last four seasons after winning the league in 2007. … Junior 1B/DH Cody Slaughter leads regular players with a .349 batting average and .438 on-base percentage, often serving as the cleanup hitter. … Junior OF John Sheridan (.341, 11/15 SB), a second-team All-Ivy pick last year, and sophomore OF Matt DeRenzi (.307) both see time at leadoff. … Sophomore C Wes Van Boom (.294) leads the team with 20 RBI and a .494 slugging percentage. He's tied for the team lead in home runs, with senior 1B/DH Mike DiBiase (.229) and freshman OF Will Marcal (.253) also launching three homers on the seasons. DiBiase was selected to the All-Ivy Second Team last season … Junior Heath Mayo (RHP, 2-0, 4.50), sophomore Anthony Galan (RHP, 1-2, 7.03) and junior Kevin Carlow (RHP, 0-4, 7.94) are team's primary starters, with freshman Taylor Wright (RHP, 0-2, 3.28) leading the team in ERA with eight of his nine appearances coming out of the bullpen. Mayo was selected to the All-Ivy Second Team last season. He started one of the Bears' two games against Cornell, yielding one earned run in six innings with three walks and no strikeouts en route to a victory.
 
SERIES HISTORY vs. BROWN
Since 2000, the all-time series between the Big Red and Bears is even at Hoy Field in Ithaca, N.Y. — but Brown hasn't lost to Cornell on its home field since the first game of a doubleheader on April 8, 2000. That's a string of 11 games, including a sweep of 13-6 and 15-4 when the Big Red last visited Murray Stadium on April 11, 2010. Cornell's first victory against Brown was on May 7, 1912.
 
ABOUT YALE
The Bulldogs have lost six straight, including its first four Ivy League games last weekend at Columbia and Penn. Yale has scored just six runs over those six games and is averaging 2.88 runs per contest through its first 25 games. … Sophomore SS Cale Hanson has the team lead in batting average by more than 100 points, hitting .378 with a team-high .457 on-base percentage and .463 slugging percentage. He is frequently used at the leadoff spot and also leads the team in doubles (seven), walks (11) and stolen bases (five). … Sophomore 1B/RHP Kevin Fortunato has a wide lead in RBI (15), having hit one of the team's three home runs on the season. He was one of just three freshmen to be named to the All-Ivy Second Team last season, holding down one of the two relief pitcher spots. He has two of Yale's three saves this year. … Freshman OF Joe Lubanski and junior 1B/OF Josh Scharff have the team's other homers. … Junior Christopher O'Hare (LHP, 1-3, 4.97), sophomore Rob Cerfolio (LHP, 0-3, 4.97), senior Pat Ludwig (RHP, 0-3, 2.27) and junior Nolan Becker (LHP, 1-3, 5.54) are the team's primary starters. The Big Red is particularly familiar with Ludwig, having faced him in each of the last three seasons. Ludwig is 1-0 with a 2.16 ERA and 16 strikeouts in 16.2 innings against Cornell in his career. … Senior Eric Shultz (RHP, 2-0, 4.87; one save) has made a team-high 13 appearances out of the bullpen. … The Bulldogs have seven players that stand 6-foot-4 or taller, with sophomore RHP Michael Coleman standing 6-7.
 
SERIES HISTORY vs. YALE
Cornell and Yale first played each other in 1887, a 9-1 win for the Bulldogs. Yale has also won the last four meetings between the teams, and is now one win away from eclipsing the century mark in the all-time series. The Big Red has had particularly hard times at Yale Field of late, entering this weekend on a nine-game losing streak at the historic facility. Cornell's last win at Yale came in the first game of a doubleheader on April 13, 2002.
 
HITS OPTIONAL
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 seven home runs in just 22 games, Cruz has already doubled his total from the 2011 season and is just one homer away from matching last season's team-leading total of eight (held by Brian Billigen).
 
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 this weekend, a stretch that included nine games with multiple hits. He has 35 hits with a gaudy .422 batting average, which ranks 24th in the country. Senior catcher Brandon Lee has the team's longest current hit streak at four games. Lee was 3-for-4 with two doubles in the Big Red's 5-2 win over Dartmouth on Monday, then hit an RBI double Wednesday against Canisius.
 
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 has already eclipsed its win total from last season, with an impact freshman class making its mark in the early going. RHP Brent Jones has been stellar in his first four collegiate starts, posting a 4-1 record with a 2.35 earned-run average and team-high 30 strikeouts. As of Monday, only three pitchers in Division I had tossed more than Jones' three complete games already. Freshman RHP Brian McAfee is also undefeated through five starts with a stunning 26:2 walk-to-strikeout ratio. Yet another freshman leads the staff in appearances — RHP Kellen Urbon has surrendered just one earned run in 13 innings while picking up a team-leading five saves. At the plate, freshman Kevin Tatum ranks fourth on the team with a .333 batting average.

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 returns to Ithaca for a seven-game homestand, starting with a non-league contest on Wednesday, April 11 against Binghamton. Cornell is then scheduled for three doubleheaders in a four-day span, starting with four intra-Gehrig Division games April 14-15 against Columbia. Siena then visits Hoy Field for a twinbill at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, April 17.