FAIRFAX, Va. – The baseball team makes a quick jaunt to the greater D.C. area for a Wednesday doubleheader at George Mason. First pitch for the non-league games is at 2 p.m.

GAME INFORMATION
Cornell at George Mason
DATE: Wednesday, April 2, 2014
TIME: First game at 2 p.m., second game approximately 30 minutes following completion of the first game.
RECORDS: Cornell 9-9, George Mason 14-8
SERIES RECORD: George Mason leads, 3-0
LAST MEETING: Mason swept a three-game series March 8-9, 2003 (5-1, 11-4, 6-2) in Fairfax, Va.
SITE: Spuhler Field; Fairfax, Va.
AUDIO: GoMason.com
LIVE STATS: GoMason.com
 
ABOUT THE BIG RED
Cornell split its first four Ivy League games of the season, winning one game apiece in doubleheaders against Dartmouth on Saturday and Harvard on Tuesday. Junior CF JD Whetsel drove in the winning run with two out in the bottom of the seventh to spur the Big Red's 3-2 walk-off win in the opener against the Big Green, then senior RF Chris Cruz spearheaded the Big Red's 6-2 victory in Tuesday's nightcap with a three-run double. Freshman RHP Tiger Smith (1-0, 0.93) earned the victory in that game, surrendering one run over five-plus innings in his first collegiate start. Junior C Matt Hall was 7-for-14 over the four games. … 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 .290 as a team with four batters with at least 20 at-bats at .300 or better. Junior Ryan Karl leads the team with a .343 average, eight doubles, five home runs, 20 RBI and .700 slugging percentage. As of Monday, he ranked eighth in the country in slugging (.710) and 10th in home runs per game (0.31). … One point behind Karl is Whetsel (.342), who had an 11-game hitting streak broken in Tuesday's second game. He has a team-high 12 walks and nine stolen bases, which is tied for the team lead with senior SS Tom D'Alessandro. … Eight of the Big Red's nine most starting batters are hitting better than .275. … The Big Red's pitching staff had a 1.73 earned-run average March 14 before a three-game series at James Madison's launching pad, but still owns a respectable 3.67 ERA. … Sophomore LHP Michael Byrne (2-1, 1.98) hasn't yet surrendered a home run in 27.1 innings of work. … The Big Red has lost just one of its six 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. After being swept by Sacred Heart, Cornell split doubleheaders with Dartmouth and Harvard.
 
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 177-158-1 (.528).
 
ABOUT GEORGE MASON
The Patriots have won five or their last six games, which have all been played at their home ballpark. Mason was only able to get in one game of a three-game series last weekend against Virginia Commonwealth due to inclement weather. Senior RHP/1B Anthony Montefusco surrendered a run in the first inning, but settled down to keep the Rams off the board for the next seven innings in the Patriots' 6-1 victory on Friday. … Among players with at least 50 at-bats, junior C Ray Toto leads the team with a .373 batting average. Senior 3B Blaise Fernandez has a team-high 11 doubles and has 15 RBI, which is tied for the team lead with junior CF Luke Willis. Willis is a perfect 10-for-10 on stolen base attempts. Senior 2B Chris Cook has three of the team's eight home runs and has been hit by pitch 14 times in 22 games. Senior RF Josh Leemhuis (.369) and sophomore SS Brandon Gum (.333) are also batting above .300. … Montefusco and senior LHP Jared Gaynor are the Patriots' frontline starters, but neither is likely to appear against the Big Red with league games looming this weekend. Freshman RHP Tyler Zombro (2-1, 3.15) has started three games and junior RHP John Williams (0-1, 6.00) has started two. Junior RHP Riley Coverdale (1-0, 5.40) has a team-high eight appearances out of the bullpen and sophomore RHP Mark Maksimow (0-1, 1.26, 4 saves) is the closer.
 
SERIES HISTORY vs. GEORGE MASON
The Patriots have won all three meetings with the Big Red in the programs' histories, all coming in 2003. George Mason started off the series with a 5-1 victory on March 8, then swept a doubleheader the following day, 11-4 and 6-2. Cornell is 36-19-1 all-time against teams currently in the Atlantic 10 Conference.
 
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 78th in the nation with 1.31 steals per game as of Monday. Senior SS Tom D'Alessandro is tied for the team with nine stolen bases through 16 games, including a program-record six in a March 9 victory at George Washington. His average of 0.57 steals per game ranks 18th 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 also has nine 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 March 22.
 
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, posting a 4-1 record and 3.47 ERA. He is 1-1 with a 3.52 ERA and a team-best 23 strikeouts in 23 innings through a team-high five 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 wraps up the interdivision portion of its Ivy League schedule with a doubleheader Saturday at Yale followed by another twin bill Sunday at Brown. Cornell then continues its stretch of 11 straight road games with a 4 p.m. clash at Binghamton on Wednesday, April 9.