PRINCESS ANNE, Md. — The defending Ivy League champion baseball team will kick off its 2013 season this weekend with four games at the UMES Tournament. The Big Red will take on host Maryland-Eastern Shore in a pair of games bookending two tilts against Saint Peter's.
 
TOURNAMENT INFORMATION
COMPETING TEAMS: Cornell, Saint Peter's, Maryland-Eastern Shore
FORMAT: Each team will play other teams twice
GAME 1: Cornell at UMES, 11:30 a.m., Friday, March 1
GAME 2: Cornell vs. Saint Peter's, 2:30 p.m., Friday, March 1
GAME 3: Cornell vs. Saint Peter's, 2:30 p.m., Saturday, March 2
GAME 4: Cornell at UMES, 11:30 a.m., Sunday, March 3
SITE: Princess Anne, Md. — Hawks Stadium
RECORDS: Cornell 0-0, Saint Peter's 1-3, UMES 1-7
SERIES RECORD (vs. UMES): Cornell leads, 4-0
SERIES RECORD (vs. Saint Peter's): Cornell leads, 1-0
LAST MEETING (vs. UMES): Cornell swept four-game series; March 2-4, 2012 at Princess Anne, Md.
LAST MEETING (vs. Saint Peter's): Cornell won, 13-3, on March 28, 1971 at Miami, Fla.
AUDIO (UMES games only): http://www.ustream.tv/channel/umes-live-broadcast
LIVE STATS: http://www.umeshawks.com/sports/m-basebl/
 
ABOUT THE BIG RED
The 2012 season was filled with dramatic victories, marked by a perfect 5-0 mark in extra-inning affairs, as Cornell went 31-17-1 to set a program record for victories, win the Ivy League title and advance to the NCAA Regionals. It was an extraordinary turnaround in just a year's time after the Big Red posted a 10-30 record in 2011. The team's 14-6 record in Ivy League play was also a program high in either the Ivy League or Eastern Intercollegiate Baseball League. Not surprisingly, Cornell mopped up with 11 All-Ivy selections, including a pair of first-team pitchers in Connor Kaufmann, who returns for his junior season, and Kellen Urbon, who returns as a sophomore.
 
THE HEAD COACH
In his fifth season as the Ted Thoren Head Coach of Baseball at Cornell University, Bill Walkenbach has brought the Big Red into the spotlight with the program's first league title since 1977 and its first Ivy League title since the circuit added baseball 20 years ago. 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 eighth season as a collegiate head coach, Walkenbach has a career record of 145-132-1 (.523).
 
SERIES HISTORY
Cornell is 4-0 all-time against UMES, with all four of those games taking place in 2012. The Big Red opened its season with a pair of doubleheaders at UMES, sweeping the series by scores of 15-4, 7-0, 7-5 and 13-0. The games were part of the Big Red's first 6-0 start to a season since 1906. Cornell has played Saint Peter's just once before, winning 13-3 on March 28, 1971 during a spring trip to Miami, Fla.
 
ABOUT UMES
The Hawks have lost six straight to fall to 1-7, including losses of 13-2 and 8-4 in their home-opening doubleheader against Lehigh on Wednesday. Byron Campbell has taken the early offensive lead, batting .333 with a pair of doubles and four stolen bases in eight games. Mike Escanilla is hitting .308, while Jeffrey Fleetwood has a team-high five RBIs. The teams' primary starters, Jesus Hernandez (0-2, 12.34) and Zachary Saca (0-2, 14.73) both pitched Wednesday.
 
ABOUT SAINT PETER'S
The Peacocks are 1-3 to date, having lost six games off its schedule due to inclement weather in the Mid-Atlantic region. The lone Saint Peter's win to date was a 9-2 affair over Coppin State last Sunday, which was then followed by a pair of losses two days later at Fordham. The Peacocks opened the season with a 9-1 loss at nationally ranked Virginia. Lefthanded-hitting 2B Matt Speckmann is hitting .500 with a pair of doubles in the Peacocks' win at Coppin State. Matthew Yuhas (1-0, 1.80) picked up the victory, fanning eight while surrendering two runs (one earned) in five innings of work.
 
UNHITTABLE
Sophomore RHP Connor Kaufmann tossed the program's first no-hitter in nearly 32 years on April 1, 2012 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 last solo no-hitter for Cornell was April 8, 1979, when Greg Myers worked five innings in a 1-0 victory over Canisius. Kaufmann went on to be selected as an All-Ivy League First Team selection.
 
URBON LEGEND
Sophomore RHP Kellen Urbon made quite a statement in his 21 appearances last season. He set a program record with nine saves, and his miniscule 0.47 earned-run average was the loweest ever recorded by a Cornell pitcher who has seen more than 30 innings of action. Not surprisingly, he has reeled in countless awards and honors as a result. Urbon was a unanimous selection as a first-team relief pitcher and was also named the Ivy League Rookie of the Year — the first time a Cornellian has taken the award since head coach Bill Walkenbach did it himself in 1995. He was also a Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American and a National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association's Preseason All-America Third Team selection in December.
 
CONTROL FREAK
Sophomore RHP Brian McAfee posted a 6-1 record in his collegiate debut, with the lone loss on the season coming against East Carolina in the NCAA Regionals. One of the big keys to his success was a 41:10 strikeout-to-walk ratio. His average of 1.35 walks per nine innings ranked 35th in the nation. McAfee was an All-Ivy League Second Team pick in 2012.
 
CRUZ CONTROL
Junior outfielder Chris Cruz set a single-season program record for home runs in 2012, bashing 12 — the last one coming in walk-off fashion in decisive Game 3 of the Ivy League Championship Series. His historic run actually started at UMES, when he smacked two home runs in the first game against the Hawks. He led the Ivy League in home runs last season, and his average of 0.24 home runs per game ranked 35th in the country.
 
UP NEXT
Cornell will spend the second weekend of its season with the same opposition as last year, returning to the greater Washington area for a pair of doubleheaders against George Washington on Saturday, March 9 and Sunday, March 10. The Big Red will then play eight games in nine days starting the following weekend on its annual extended spring trip before returning to Ithaca, N.Y. for its home opener on March 26 against Albany.