ANNAPOLIS, Md. — The baseball team gets its season under way this weekend with a three-game series at Navy in the programs' first meeting since 2009. Saturday's doubleheader is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m., while Sunday's finale is slated to begin at noon at Max Bishop Stadium. Sunday's game will be streamed on the Patriot League Network.
 
SERIES INFORMATION
Cornell at Navy
GAMES 1-2: Saturday, March 1 (First game at 11 a.m.; second game approximately 30 minutes after completion of first game)
GAME 3: Sunday, March 10, 2013 (Noon)
SITE: Terwilliger Brothers Field at Max Bishop Stadium — Annapolis, Md.
RECORDS: Cornell 0-0, Navy 2-4
LIVE VIDEO (Game 3): Patriot League Network
LIVE STATS (Game 1): www.NavySports.com
LIVE STATS (Game 2): www.NavySports.com
LIVE STATS (Game 3): www.NavySports.com
SERIES RECORD: Navy leads, 46-28
LAST MEETING: Cornell won swept a doubleheader, 7-0 and 5-4, on Feb. 28, 2009.
 
ABOUT THE BIG RED
The 2013 season was filled with significant injuries to some of the squad's best players, but the team's depth led it to a 23-17 record. Despite missing two 2012 All-Ivy League First Team selections (Connor Kaufmann and Kellen Urbon), the pitching staff posted a stellar 3.13 earned run average – which is actually a half-run better than the staff's numbers in the 2012 Ivy League Championship season. But the Big Red's offense struggled to a batting average of .240. Just three everyday starters were available for all 40 games. The 2014 season starts with 16 consecutive road games before the team's home opener against Dartmouth on March 29.
 
THE HEAD COACH
In his sixth season as the Ted Thoren Head Coach of Baseball at Cornell University, Bill Walkenbach has brought the Big Red into the spotlight in 2012 with the program's first league title since 1977 and its first Ivy League title since the circuit added baseball 20 years prior. 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 168-146-1 (.535).
 
ABOUT NAVY
The Midshipmen are 2-4 after Wednesday's game against Coppin State was canceled, with the Annapolis area blanketed in a fresh coat of snow. Both Navy victories were spearheaded by junior Anthony Parenti (LHP, 2-0, 0.00). He is one of nine pitchers in the country to have pitched 13 or more innings with zero runs allowed so far. He has 19 strikeouts and has yielded just six hits and two walks, leading to back-to-back Patriot League Pitcher of the Week honors. … Junior 2B Brad Borosak (.261, HR, 3 RBI, 3 SB) was the league's Player of the Week after Navy's first week, and freshman SS Travis Blue (.333, 2 BB, 2 SB) was the Rookie of the Week. ... For more on Navy, click here.
 
SERIES HISTORY vs. NAVY
Once league rivals in the Eastern Intercollegiate Baseball League, before the Ivy League added baseball to its repertoire, Cornell and Navy have met 75 times in their programs' histories. The Midshipmen hold a 47-28 advantage, though the Big Red swept a doubleheader, 7-0 and 5-4, the last time the teams met Feb. 28, 2009 in Annapolis. The games were Bill Walkenbach's first as the Big Red's head coach.
 
NOT FAR REMOVED FROM A LITTLE HISTORY
Cornell still has plenty of pieces in place from a special 2012 season. 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 RHPs Connor Kaufmann and Kellen Urbon, who are both still with the team.
 
SPEED KILLS
Cornell was consistently in the Top 50 in the nation last season in stolen bases, finishing up at 1.55 steals per game. Junior OF JD Whetsel led the team with 19 stolen bases (sixth-highest for a single season in program history) on 25 attempts, and senior SS Tom D'Alessandro swiped 11 bags on just 13 attempts. Whetsel was undoubtedly the Big Red's offensive leader last season in his first campaign with a starting role. He also led the team in average (.300), runs (27), doubles (11), total bases (56) and on base percentage (.402) en route to All-Ivy League Second Team honors.
 
BYRNE NOTICE
The Ivy League Rookie of the Year came from Cornell in 2012, and the Big Red has another good candidate in 2013 with Michael Byrne. Now a sophomore, the left-handed pitcher earned All-Ivy League Second Team honors after seeing a variety of roles last season. With 11 appearances, including three late-season starts, Byrne was 3-2 with a 1.09 ERA, two saves, and an impressive .160 opponents' batting average.
 
JONESIN' FOR A BREAKTHROUGH
Junior RHP Brent Jones generated quite a buzz during the offseason, throwing 96 mph during the team's Scout Day during the fall. Jones was later tabbed at the 95^th-best junior in college baseball, according to Perfect Game USA. He made nine appearances (seven starts) last season for the Big Red, posing a 4-1 record and 3.47 ERA.
 
WELCOME ABOARD
Junior transfer Zach McCulley made himself right at home on the Big Red pitching staff last season after stops at William & Mary and three junior colleges. The 6-foot-5 lefty locked down a spot in the starting rotation for the Ivy League season and finished the season with a sparkling 1.70 ERA to go with a 4-2 record and just four extra-base hits surrendered in 42.1 innings of work.
 
REMEMBER ME?
Despite missing half the season with an injury, OF Chris Cruz led the Big Red in home runs last season with four. But that number is hardly an indication of what the slugger is capable of. 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. Cruz returns this year for his senior season.
 
URBON LEGEND
Junior RHP Kellen Urbon made quite a statement in his 21 appearances as a freshman. 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 had 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. Urbon missed the bulk of the 2013 season due to injury.
 
UNHITTABLE
Senior 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. He missed the bulk of the 2013 season due to injury.
 
UP NEXT
The Big Red returns to the metro D.C. area next weekend for a four-game nonleague set at George Washington. The series will feature a pair of noon doubleheaders on Saturday, March 8 and Sunday, March 9. Cornell will then prepare for a three-game series the following weekend at James Madison.