ITHACA, N.Y. – The baseball team wraps up Ivy League play this weekend with a split four-game series against Lou Gehrig Division rival Princeton. The teams will start off with a noon Friday doubleheader at Hoy Field before heading south for a noon Sunday twin bill at Princeton.

SERIES INFORMATION
Cornell vs. Princeton
GAMES 1 & 2: Friday, April 25 (at Hoy Field – Ithaca, N.Y.)
GAMES 3 & 4: Sunday, April 27 (at Clarke Field – Princeton, N.J.)
TIME: First game at noon; second game approximately 30 minutes after the completion of the first game
RECORDS: Cornell 15-20 (6-10 Ivy League); Princeton 12-23 (7-9 Ivy League)
SERIES RECORD: Princeton leads, 141-88-2
LAST MEETING: Split four games April 26-28 (4-2C, 2-1C, 5-2P, 4-1P)
WEBCAST: Ivy League Digital Network
AUDIO: Ivy League Digital Network
LIVE STATS (Friday only): CornellBigRed.com
LIVE STATS (Sunday only): GoPrincetonTigers.com
 
ABOUT THE BIG RED
Cornell is looking to snap a nine-game losing streak after Tuesday's 8-6 loss to Binghamton in a non-league game at Hoy Field. Junior 1B/LF Ryan Karl was 2-for-4 with a two-run double to boost his team-leading RBI total to 27, as the Big Red offense snapped out of a funk. In five games the previous week, Cornell hit just .188 in five games – including four shutout consecutive losses. The first of those games came against Binghamton last Thursday, then defending Ivy League champion Columbia earned a four-game sweep over the weekend at Hoy Field. Sophomore Michael Byrne and junior Brent Jones were hard-luck losers in the first game of the doubleheaders, both pitching complete games and surrendering a combined three runs. The Lions won the second game, 8-0, before the Big Red found some offense in an 8-4 loss in the series finale Sunday. Senior RF Chris Cruz was 3-for-5 with an RBI, and sophomore LF Jordan Winawer made the most of his first appearance at the leadoff hitter in Sunday's second game. He was 2-for-5 with an RBI and scored the game's first run. … Besides RBIs, Karl also leads the team with 10 doubles, six home runs and a .512 slugging percentage. … … Senior 1B Ryan Plantier is second on the team with a .274 average. His 17 RBis rank third on the team. … Junior C Matt Hall is batting .266 with just six strikeouts in 86 plate appearances. He is also the Big Red's leading hitter in Ivy play with a .324 average. … The Big Red's pitching staff has a strong 3.72 earned run average. The staff posted a 3.13 ERA last season, which was the best the program had seen since its 2.25 ERA in 1973.
 
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 183-168-1 (.521).
 
ABOUT PRINCETON
The Tigers are out of the playoff hunt, though they did manage to split last weekend's series to hand division-leading Penn two of its three Ivy losses to date. Princeton split a rare mid-week doubleheader with Harvard on April 16 on the heels of four losses against defending Ivy champion Columbia. Most recently, the Tigers dropped a 5-3 decision Wednesday at neighboring Rider. … Senior CF Alec Keller is not only the team's leading hitter, but one of the best in the Ivy League. He's hitting .362 overall with team-leading totals in triples (four), on-base percentage (.426) and slugging percentage (.520), and he's also tied for the team lead in stolen bases (six). His .440 average in Ivy play trails just Rookie of the Year favorite Will Savage, of Columbia (.446). Keller is also one of five Tigers to have multiple home runs on the year, with sophomore 2B Danny Hoy leading the way with three. Hoy also has a team-best seven doubles and six steals to go with a .285 average. … Senior LHP Michael Fagan (4-2, 2.57, 3 CGs, SHO) is Princeton's ace. He has 66 strikeouts in 49 innings, including an Ivy-best 39 in league games. Fagan fanned 11 in 6.1 innings of work last Sunday in a 4-2 win over Penn. … Freshman RHP Chad Powers (3-3, 5.24, CG) and freshman LHP Keelan Smithers (2-3, 6.15) are also weekend starters. Sophomore RHP Cameron Mingo (1-4, 4.97) has made six starts, junior RHP Nick Donatiello (1-3, 8.22) took his place in the rotation last weekend vs. Penn. … Sophomore LHP Chris Bodurian (0-3, 4.44) has made a team-high 15 pitching appearances, holding opposing hitters to a .202 batting average. He worked three innings as the starter Wednesday at Rider. … Senior RHP Jonathan York (0-0, 5.48) is the team's closer with six saves.
 
SERIES HISTORY vs. PRINCETON
The Tigers are the second-most frequent opponent for the Big Red in program history, with this weekend's four games pushing the total number of meetings between the squads to 235. The first clash came on May 19, 1888, with Princeton emerging with a 4-0 victory. The Big Red would have to wait until 1896 for its first victory over the Tigers, coming out on top of 12-10 score on a May 2 meeting in Ithaca. More recently, the teams split their four-game series last season, with the road team sweeping each doubleheader. In 2012,  Ben Swinford hit a solo home run in the top of 12th inning, and Kellen Urbon surrendered just an unearned run in 6.1 innings of relief to lead Cornell to a victory in the series finale and a clinching of the Lou Gehrig Division title.
 
OPPORTUNISTIC WINAWER
Sophomore Jordan Winawer has started the last 11 games at a corner outfield position for the Big Red – his first collegiate starts following an injury-washed 2013 season. To say Winawer has made the most of his opportunity is putting it lightly. He has been the Big Red's best hitter in each of the last two weeks, going 15-for-34 with two doubles, seven runs scored, and five RBIs. For his efforts, he was named the Ivy League Rookie of the Week on March 15. He is the first Cornell player to earn the honor since Michael Byrne did so last April – also following a four-game series against Penn. Winawer had an eight-game hitting streak snapped over the weekend.
 
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 1B/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. The last time the Big Red had consecutive Ivy League Players of the Week was when Erik Rico won the honor on consecutive weeks in 2001.
 
CATCH ME IF YOU CAN
Cornell was consistently in the Top 50 in the nation last season in stolen bases, finishing up at 1.55 steals per game. While the Big Red is slightly off that pace this season, the squad's one-two punch at the top of the lineup has wreaked plenty of havoc on the base paths this season. Senior SS Tom D'Alessandro is second on the team with 13 stolen bases, including a program-record six in a March 9 victory at George Washington. 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 leadoff hitter JD Whetsel leads the way with 15 stolen bases after leading the team with 19 last season en route to All-Ivy Second Team honors. Whetsel has reached base in 33 of 35 games this season and had an 11-game hitting streak at one point.
 
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. He is currently 3-3 with a 1.32 ERA following his complete game Saturday vs. Columbia. Byrne's 0.70 ERA in Ivy games ranks second behind Yale's Chris Lanham (0.32).
 
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 2-3 with a 2.76 ERA and 40 strikeouts in 42.1 innings through a team-high eight starts this season. His 1.88 ERA in Ivy games ranks 10th in the league.
 
HORTON OR HOUDINI?
Sophomore LHP Matt Horton has proven to be quite the escape artist in his two years coming out of the Big Red bullpen. Horton, who notched his first save of the season April 6 at Brown, stranded all 10 runners he inherited during his freshman season. Just two of 10 inherited runners have scored against Horton this season, giving him a success rate of 90 percent for stranding inherited runners over his collegiate career.
 
WELCOME ABOARD
Senior LHP 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.
 
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.
 
REMEMBER ME?
Despite missing half the season with an injury, senior RF 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. He now owns the program's career record with 24 home runs after smashing three home runs earlier this month. His five home runs rank second on the team behind six from junior 1B/OF Ryan Karl, and Cruz's 23 RBI trail just Karl's team-leading 27.
 
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 its season with a non-league doubleheader at 3 p.m. Tuesday at Canisius.