ITHACA, N.Y. — The baseball team will head back to non-league play on Thursday, closing out a seven-game home stand with a 3:30 p.m. contest against Canisius at Hoy Field. Cornell (15-7, 3-1 Ivy League) has won 11 of its last 13 games, including the start of Ivy League play last weekend.
 
SERIES INFORMATION
Canisius at Cornell
TIME: 3:30 p.m.
DATE: Thursday, April 4, 2013
SITE: Hoy Field — Ithaca, N.Y.
2013 RECORDS: Canisius 19-7 (3-2 MAAC); Cornell 15-7 (3-1 Ivy League)
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads, 10-2
LAST MEETING: Split a doubleheader on April 4, 2012 — Cornell won, 5-4, then Canisius won, 7-3
LIVE STATS: http://sidearmstats.com/cornell/baseball/scoreboard.aspx
AUDIO: www.ustream.tv/channel/cornellatbat
 
A SLIGHT ADJUSTMENT
Canisius' visit to Hoy Field was originally scheduled to be a Wednesday doubleheader, but a weather forecast calling for cold and windy conditions has spurred the programs to play a single, nine-inning game on Thursday afternoon instead.

ABOUT THE BIG RED
Cornell swept a doubleheader against Brown and split a two-game set with Yale last weekend to open league play. The Big Red surrendered one run in each of the games against the Bears, with LHP Nick Busto and RHP Brian McAfee going seven innings apiece in their respective starts. It was the first collegiate complete game for Busto in a 6-1 win in the opener, while freshman LHP Michael Byrne earned a six-out save in the 4-1 victory in the nightcap. Cornell then rallied from five down to take Sunday's game against Yale, 8-5, before rain pushed the second game back to Monday. The Bulldogs exacted their revenge in the form of a 4-2 victory in the finale. … Sophomore C Matt Hall leads the team with a .301 average and is second on the team with 13 RBIs, three behind junior 1B Ryan Plantier. … Sophomore OF Kevin Tatum has a team-high two homers and 19 walks. Both of his home runs and five of his eight RBIs came in the same game — a 10-9 win March 19 at Davidson. … The Big Red pitching staff has been particularly good of late, sporting a 1.76 earned run average over the last 10 games. Sophomore RHP Brent Jones improved to 4-0 on Sunday and McAfee, an All-Ivy League Second Team selection last season, has yielded just one run in 13 innings of work over that stretch. Junior LHP Zach McCulley has actually logged the most innings of any pitcher in the last 10 games, sporting a 1.32 ERA in 13.2 innings over four appearances.
 
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 160-136-1 (.540).
 
ABOUT CANISIUS
The Golden Griffins are riding a five-game winning streak, including a three-game sweep of Iona late last week in Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference play. The final game of the set, an 8-0 win on Friday, featured the program's first no-hitter in nearly 20 years. Freshman LHP Alex Godzak (4-1, 2.48) worked the first seven innings, surrendering just a pair of early walks en route to Louisville Slugger National Player of the Week by Collegiate Baseball honors. … In record versus common opponents Albany, Appalachian State and Saint Peter's, the Golden Griffins are 3-3 and the Big Red is 4-3. … Canisius is hitting .308 as a team, which ranks 17th in the country. Senior OF Christian Segar is hitting .500 through 42 at-bats with a team-high 10 stolen bases. Junior 1B Jimmy Luppens is batting .421 and leads the team in doubles (six), home runs (four), RBIs (24) and slugging percentage (.684). Junior OF Jesse Kelso is far and away the leading run-scorer (27) with a .349 average and nine steals. … Godzak, junior RHP Garrett Cortright (6-1, 1.42) and sophomore RHP Devon Stewart (2-3, 3.89) comprise Canisius' weekend starting rotation. Sophomore RHP Rohn Pierce (1-1, 5.40) and senior RHP Billy Martin (0-1, 15.00) have also started games this season. Junior RHP Jon Fitzsimmons (2-0, 0.00) has all four of the team's saves and has made a team-high 10 appearances out of the bullpen.
 
SERIES HISTORY vs. CANISIUS
Cornell won the opener of last season's doubleheader by scoring the go-ahead run in the sixth inning. Kevin Tatum walked, advanced to second on a wild pitch, then came around to score on Ben Swinford's double down the line in right field. Houston Hawley earned the win in relief after starter Nick Busto fanned seven while working into the fifth inning. … Cornell and Canisius played each other 10 times over a 13-year span from 1979-1991, with the Big Red winning the first nine meetings before the Golden Griffins secured a 4-3 victory in the second game of a doubleheader on April 23, 1991. The Big Red has scored at least nine runs in seven of its last eight victories over Canisius.
 
MORE THAN A LITTLE HISTORY
Cornell is coming off a 2012 season which was filled with dramatic victories, marked by a perfect 5-0 mark in extra-inning affairs. The Big Red 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.
 
REMEMBER ME?
Junior OF Chris Cruz is back in the fold, playing his first five games of the season last week after an injury held him out of action for the Big Red's first 17 contests. He wasted no time making his presence felt, going 4-for-4 with a bunt single, double and a home run to lead the Big Red to a 4-1 victory over Brown on Saturday. He's hitting .412 with a .824 slugging percentage in 17 at-bats. 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.
 
CONTROL FREAK
Sophomore RHP Brian McAfee has 19 strikeouts compared to just three walks over his first five starts, which puts him among some of the nation's stingiest pitchers when it comes to issuing free passes. As of March 31, McAfee ranked 23rd among NCAA Division I pitchers in walks allowed per nine innings (0.91) and 41st in strikeout-to-walk ratio (6.33). While it's a small sample size for this season, this trend is nothing new for McAfee. An All-Ivy League Second Team selection as a freshman last season, he posted a 6-1 record and had a 41:10 strikeout-to-walk ratio. His average of 1.35 walks per nine innings and 0.88 WHIP are both ranked 35th in the nation.
 
SPEED KILLS
Cornell ranked 16th in the nation in stole bases per game (2.29) coming into this week. Nine players already have stolen bases for the Big Red, though the lion's share have come from sophomore JD Whetsel and senior Spenser Souza. Whetsel leads the team with 12 stolen bases, which ranks 45th overall nationally and 27th in steals per game (0.57). Souza's 10 steals are 95th in the nation.
 
AN HONORABLE POSITION
Sophomore JD Whetsel was named The Ivy League's Player of the Week on March 19. He had a breakthrough weekend offensively, helping Cornell to a pair of victories in a three-game series against 2012 NCAA Regional finalist Appalachian State. He was 6-for-11 with seven runs, a pair of extra-base hits, three walks and three stolen bases. One of those extra-base hits was a three-run home run — the first of his collegiate career. Whetsel became the first Big Red player to earn the award since the player he replaced as the starting center fielder, Brian Billigen '12, won the honor on March 2, 2012.
 
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 lowest 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.
 
UP NEXT
Cornell returns to Ivy League play with a trip to Red Rolfe Division foes this weekend. The Big Red will play two games on Saturday, April 6 at Harvard, then trek north for a doubleheader the following day at Dartmouth. The first game of the twin bill against the Big Green will be televised nationally on Fox College Sports. The Big Red's next home game is a non-league affair against Binghamton at 4 p.m.p on Wednesday, April 10.