ITHACA, N.Y. – The baseball team's hunt for its second Ivy League title in the last three years starts this weekend with a pair of interdivisional doubleheaders at Hoy Field. The Big Red squares off against six-time defending Red Rolfe Division champion Dartmouth at 11 a.m. Saturday, followed by another doubleheader noon Sunday against Harvard.
 
GAME INFORMATION
Dartmouth at Cornell
DATE: Saturday, March 29, 2014
TIME: First game at 11 a.m.; second game approximately 30 minutes after completion of first game
RECORDS: Cornell 7-7, Dartmouth 3-9
SERIES RECORD: Dartmouth leads, 89-77-1
LAST MEETING: Split doubleheader April 7, 2013 (1-0 Dartmouth, 3-0 Cornell) at Hanover, N.H.
- - -
Harvard at Cornell
DATE: Sunday, March 30, 2014
TIME: First game at noon; second game approximately 30 minutes after completion of first game
RECORDS*: Cornell 7-7, Harvard 4-13
SERIES RECORD: Harvard leads, 102-46
LAST MEETING: Split doubleheader April 6, 2013 (3-1 Cornell, 10-7 Harvard) at Cambridge, Mass.
- - -
SITE: Hoy Field; Ithaca, N.Y.
WEBCAST: Ivy League Digital Network
AUDIO: Ivy League Digital Network
LIVE STATS: www.sidearmstats.com/cornell/baseball
(* - does not include Saturday's results)
 
ABOUT THE BIG RED
Cornell was swept last weekend in a four-game series against Sacred Heart at a pair of neutral-site venues on Long Island, marking the first time the Big Red has lost a four-game series since March 19-21, 2009 at Sacramento State. Junior OF JD Whetsel was 5-for-15 on the weekend with a stolen base and an RBI. Junior RHP Brent Jones struck out seven while yielding one run in five innings in his start, and senior RHP Connor Kaufmann tossed a complete game while fanning five in the series finale. … Buoyed by an offensive explosion for 46 runs and 57 hits in a three-game series March 15-16 at James Madison, the Big Red is hitting .294 as a team with four batters with at least 40 at-bats at .340 or better. Junior DH Spencer Scorza leads the squad with a .364 average. His three home runs and .636 slugging percentage are second on the team behind junior OF Ryan Karl, who is hitting .340 with a team-best five homers, 17 RBI, six doubles and .736 slugging percentage. His ranks eighth in the nation in both home runs per game (0.36) and slugging percentage. … Cornell is 17th in the nation in home runs per game (0.79), 21st in doubles per game (2.14) and 25th in slugging percentage (.427). … The Big Red's pitching staff had a 1.73 earned-run average March 14 before a three-game series, but a 6.51 ERA since. Sophomore LHP Michael Byrne (2-1, 2.05) has 16 strikeouts in 22 innings of work and has surrendered just one extra-base hit. … Junior RHP Brian McAfee (1-0, 3.00) hasn't walked a batter in 12 innings through two starts. He tossed a complete-game victory against George Washington earlier this month. … The Big Red has won three of its four series so far this year. It started the year by taking two of three against Navy, then it won the final three games of a four-game set at George Washington before winning two of three at James Madison.
 
THE HEAD COACH
In his sixth season as the Ted Thoren Head Coach of Baseball at Cornell University, Bill Walkenbach 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 ninth season as a collegiate head coach, Walkenbach has a career record of 175-156-1 (.529).
 
ABOUT DARTMOUTH
Dartmouth, which has won the Ivy League's Red Rolfe Division six consecutive seasons, is off to a 3-9 start to the season – though nine of those 12 games have come against teams who were nationally ranked at the time. The Big Green won one of three against Florida International, Kansas and Nebraska Omaha and was swept in three games at TCU. The team's Wednesday game at Siena was canceled due to inclement weather. … Dartmouth is hitting .251 as a team, led by junior 2B Thomas Roulis. After missing all of last season with an injury, Roulis is batting .302 and has seven RBI, which is tied for the team lead with senior RF Jeff Keller. Keller is also leading the squad with four stolen bases, and his .300 average is matched by junior C Matt MacDowell. Sophomore DH Joe Purritano (.238, 1 HR, 5 RBI) is the reigning Ivy League Rookie of the Year. … The Big Green pitching staff carries a 6.88 earned-run average into the weekend, but those numbers should be taken with a grain of salt given the quality of the team's opposition to date (Dartmouth posted a 2.04 ERA in league games last season). … Freshman RHP Beau Sulser (1-2, 6.06) leads the team with three starts. Senior RHP Louis Concato (0-1, 1.80) had a quality start March 14 at TCU. Sophomore RHP Michael Danielak (0-2, 6.00), sophomore RHP Duncan Robinson (2-1, 6.75) and junior LHP Adam Frank (0-2, 24.75) have all started two games apiece.
 
SERIES HISTORY vs. DARTMOUTH
The Big Red split its two games with the Big Green last season, suffering a walk-off 1-0 loss in the opener of the doubleheader before rebounding for a 3-0 win in the nightcap. Zach McCulley tossed the shutout in that game after Brian McAfee threw seven scoreless innings in the first game. Dartmouth leads the all-time series, 89-77-1, but Cornell has won five of the last seven meetings between the programs over the last two years. That stretch includes the 2013 Ivy League Championship Series, in which Chris Cruz hit a walk-off two-run home run in the 11^th inning of Game 3 to give the Big Red its first Ivy League title. Bill Walkenbach is 7-9 against the Big Red in his career as the Big Red's head coach.
 
ABOUT HARVARD
Harvard enters the weekend 4-13, with victories against Lamar, Michigan State, North Dakota State and Army. The Crimson dropped two of three against the Black Knights to wrap up a road swing through South Carolina and Florida, which included a two-game split with North Dakota State, a single loss against Connecticut and two losses in three games vs. Michigan State. … Harvard enters the weekend hitting .240 as a team. Senior SS/LF Carlton Bailey is leading the squad with a .323 average, sparked by a 3-for-5, 2 RBI performance in the team's last game against Army. Junior C Ethan Ferreira is batting .273 with four doubles, tied for the team lead with junior RF Brandon Kregel. Kregel's 13 walks are a team-high, and his nine RBI trails only junior LF/RF Jack Colton's 10. The Crimson has just one home run to date from junior CF Mike Martin, who also has seven of the team's 16 stolen bases. … The Crimson pitching staff has a 4.06 ERA coming into the weekend. Sophomore RHP Sean Poppen (2-1, 1.44) has been the team's ace in the early going with a team-high 21 strikeouts in 25 innings through four starts. Freshman RHP Nick Greuner (0-1, 4.01) and senior RHP Sam Dodge (0-1, 4.19) also have four starts. … Senior RHP Zack Olson (0-1, 4.66) has appeared in relief in 10 of the team's 17 games already, and junior RHP Tanner Anderson (0-1, 2.82) has three saves in his seven appearances from the mound. Anderson is also as a DH.
 
SERIES HISTORY vs. 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 101 more meetings since to take a 102-46 lead in the all-time series, with the teams splitting the season series each of the last four seasons. In 2013, Nick Busto turned in a complete game in a 3-1 victory in the opener. Conor McCabe, who has since graduated, drove in the go-ahead runs with a double in the fourth. The Crimson came back to win the second game, 10-7, despite a two-run home run from Chris Cruz. The last time the Big Red swept two against Harvard was 1995. Bill Walkenbach is 4-6 against the Big Red in his career 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.
 
HONOR ROLL
The Big Red had back-to-back Ivy League Players of the Week for the first time since 2001 when senior SS Tom D'Alessandro received the honor March 18 and junior OF Ryan Karl garnered the award March 25. D'Alessandro's selection was buoyed by a program-record six stolen bases in one game against George Washington. Karl was then 8-for-15 with two doubles and four home runs in the three-game series at James Madison. His last home run was a grand slam with two outs in the top of the ninth to send the series finale to extra innings, which the Big Red won, 14-8.
 
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. The Big Red is off to a similar start this season, ranking 63rd in the nation with 1.43 steals per game as of Monday. Senior SS Tom D'Alessandro leads the team with eight stolen bases through 14 games, including a program-record six in a March 9 victory at George Washington. His average of 0.67 steals per game ranks 10th in the country among qualifying players. The Big Red had nine steals in that final game against GW, which was just one shy of a program record 10 set in 1952 against a team from nearby Sampson Air Force Base. Junior OF JD Whetsel has seven stolen bases so far after leading the team with 19 last season en route to All-Ivy Second Team honors.
 
BYRNE NOTICE
The Ivy League Rookie of the Year came from Cornell in 2012 (Kellen Urbon), and the Big Red had 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. Byrne didn't surrender an earned run through three appearances this season before Sacred Heart finally broke through against him last weekend.
 
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 95th-best junior in college baseball, according to Perfect Game USA. He made nine appearances (seven starts) last season for the Big Red, posting a 4-1 record and 3.47 ERA. He is 1-1 with a 3.93 ERA and 20 strikeouts in 18.1 innings through a team-high four starts this season.
 
WELCOME ABOARD
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 and had two home runs March 15-16 at James Madison.
 
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 will make its first trip to George Mason since 2003, playing a pair of non-league nine-inning games on Tuesday and Wednesday in Fairfax, Va. Cornell then wraps up the interdivision portion of its Ivy League schedule with a doubleheader Saturday, April 5 at Yale followed by another twin bill Sunday, April 6 at Brown.