ITHACA, N.Y. — Tied for the early lead in the Ivy League Lou Gehrig Division standings, the baseball team will wrap up interdivision play this weekend with road doubleheaders against Harvard on Saturday and defending Red Rolfe Division champion Dartmouth on Sunday. Both twin bills begin at noon, with the first game of the Dartmouth series televised nationally on Fox College Sports.
 
SERIES INFORMATION
Cornell at Harvard
SITE: O'Donnell Field — Cambridge, Mass.
2013 RECORDS: Cornell 15-8 (3-1 Ivy League); Harvard 4-19 (1-3 Ivy)
SERIES RECORD: Harvard leads, 101-45
LAST MEETING: Split a doubleheader on March 31, 2012 — Harvard won, 6-2, then Cornell won, 12-7
AUDIO: www.ustream.tv/channel/cornellatbat
LIVE STATS: http://livestats.prestosports.com/harvard/
GAME 1: Noon on Saturday, April 6, 2013
GAME 2: Approximately 30 minutes following the completion of the first game
 
Cornell at Dartmouth
SITE: Red Rolfe Field at Biondi Park — Hanover, N.H.
2013 RECORDS (not including Saturday's games): Cornell 15-8 (3-1 Ivy League); Dartmouth 15-3 (2-2 Ivy)
SERIES RECORD: Dartmouth leads, 88-76
LAST MEETING: Cornell won Ivy League Championship Series in three games, May 5-6, 2012
TV (first game only): Fox College Sports
AUDIO: www.dartmouthsports.com/liveEvents/liveEvents.dbml
WEBCAST: www.dartmouthsports.com/liveEvents/liveEvents.dbml
LIVE STATS: http://livestats.prestosports.com/harvard/
GAME 1: Noon on Sunday, April 7, 2013
GAME 2: Approximately 30 minutes following the completion of the first game
OF NOTE: To accommodate television, the teams have agreed to switch the format of the doubleheader. The first game will be scheduled for nine innings, while the second game is scheduled for seven innings.
 
ABOUT THE BIG RED
Cornell is coming off a 14-5 loss to Canisius on Thursday, though the score was inflated by a Golden Griffins seven-run ninth inning as the Big Red turned to its sixth and seventh pitchers on the day. Sophomore JD Whetsel was 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI, and sophomore Kevin Tatum had two RBIs. … Last weekend, the Big Red swept a doubleheader against Brown and split a two-game set with Yale 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. … Whetsel has taken over the team lead with a .308 average, and he also leads the squad in runs (19), doubles (seven), stolen bases (12) and on-base percentage (.438). … Sophomore 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 2.63 earned run average over the last 10 games — despite the lopsided loss Thursday. Sophomore RHP Brent Jones improved to 4-0 last 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 no starts over the last 10 games, but he has a team-high 12 strikeouts over that stretch while working 8.2 scoreless innings in three 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 160-137-1 (.539).
 
ABOUT HARVARD
The Crimson opened Ivy League play last weekend with two losses against Columbia before splitting with Penn. Harvard then lost a mid-week nonleague game with Boston College, 8-6. The team's other wins have come against Bucknell (once) and Houston Baptist (twice). Bill Decker is in his first season as the head coach after a 22-year career at Trinity College (Conn.) … Harvard is hitting .236 as a team, with just sophomore Mike Martin eclipsing the .300 mark. Martin is hitting .346 and leads the team in runs (11), stolen bases (two) and is tied for the lead in doubles (six) with sophomore OF Brandon Kregel. He is batting .297, leads the team with nine RBIs and has the squad's only home run to date. … Junior RHP Sam Dodge (0-5, 5.84) has a team-leading 16 strikeouts and is in line to start Saturday's opener. Sophomore RHP Matt Timoney (0-2, 6.46) is the Crimson's probable starter for Game 2, even though his team-high nine appearances to date have all been in relief. Senior RHP Jordan Haviland (0-0, 4.35) has the team's only save.
 
SERIES HISTORY WITH HARVARD
The storied series between Cornell and Harvard began in 1887, with the Big Red suffering a season-ending 6-5 loss to the Crimson. Harvard has won 100 more meetings since to take a 101-45 lead in the all-time series, with the teams splitting the season series each of the last three seasons. In 2012, the Crimson won the opener of a March 31 doubleheader at Hoy Field, 6-2, then took a commanding six-run lead halfway through the second game. But the Big Red stormed back to tie the game in the fifth, then take a 9-6 lead in the sixth en route to a 12-7 victory. The last time the Big Red swept two against Harvard was 1995.
 
ABOUT DARTMOUTH
A perennial force and the hands-down favorite of the Red Rolfe Division, the Big Green has the Ivy League's best overall record at 15-3, and it isn't because of a weak schedule. The Big Green was even receiving votes in a couple national polls before it was swept in last Saturday's doubleheader at Penn by matching 3-2 scores. Dartmouth has since rebounded with three consecutive wins to continue its best start in program history. … Senior OF Ennis Coble leads the way with a .381 batting average and five stolen bases. Junior OF Jeff Keller (.365) has a team-high 13 doubles and .730 slugging percentage. His 20 RBIs are second on the team only to sophomore IF Nick Lombardi (.328), who has also smacked a team-high three home runs. Freshman OF Nick Ruppert (.345) and sophomore C Matt MacDowell (.315) are the other regular players batting better than .300. … All four of the Big Green's starters have sub-3.00 earned run averages. Senior RHP Cole Sulser (2-1, 1.88) is the only righty of the bunch, returning to the Big Green after missing the 2012 season due to injury. LHP Michael Johnson (4-0, 2.05) has team-high 26.1 innings pitcher and 27 strikeout, joining LHP Mitch Horacek (4-0, 2.70) among undefeated ranks. LHP Kyle Hunter (1-1, 1.74) has the best ERA for a starter and has been a part of two shutouts. … RHP Thomas Olson (0-0) hasn't allowed a run in 8.2 innings over eight appearances. He has six saves.
 
SERIES HISTORY WITH DARTMOUTH
The Big Green was the Big Red's most common opponent in 2012, thanks largely to the three-game Ivy League Championship Series in May at Hoy Field. Cornell won four of the five meetings, include a regular-season sweep of the two games played at Hoy Field. Junior RHP Connor Kaufmann starred in the first game, tossing a no-hitter on a rainy day that would push the second game to a day later. Cornell completed the sweep with a 5-2 victory, then won the first game of the ICS, 11-3. Dartmouth forced a Game 3 with a 7-1 victory, then Cornell won its first Ivy League title in dramatic fashion with a Chris Cruz walk-off home run in the 11th inning. Cornell and Dartmouth first met in 1906, when the Big Red now holding a 88-76 lead in the all-time series.
 
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 six 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 .381 with a .714 slugging percentage in 21 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. Whetsel 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. He has now reached base safely in 22 of the Big Red's 23 games.
 
UNHITTABLE
Junior 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 briefly returns home for a nonleague game at 4 p.m. Wednesday against Binghamton at Hoy Field. The Big Red then hits the road again for its next six contests, including a pair of doubleheaders next weekend at Columbia and another twin bill on Tuesday, April 16 at Siena.