VESTAL, N.Y. – The baseball team continues its stretch of 11 consecutive road games at 4 p.m. Wednesday with a non-league tilt against Binghamton University at Varsity Field.

GAME INFORMATION
Cornell at Binghamton
DATE: Wednesday, April 9, 2014
TIME: 4 p.m.
RECORDS: Cornell 13-11, 5-3 Ivy League; Binghamton* 9-13, 4-4 America East
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads, 18-12
LAST MEETING: Binghamton won, 6-5, on April 23, 2013 in Vestal, N.Y.
SITE: Varsity Field; Vestal, N.Y.
WEBCAST (free): www.bubearcats.tv
LIVE STATS: www.sidearmstats.com/binghamton/baseball
(* — does not include Tuesday's result)
 
ABOUT THE BIG RED
Cornell is coming off a three-win weekend among its four games at Yale and Brown. The Big Red dropped the opener against the Bulldogs, 1-0 in an extra inning, before rebounding to split with the Red Rolfe Division leaders before a sweep of the Bears a day later. Senior Chris Cruz played a major role in each of the victories. In Game 2 against Yale, Cruz hit a two-run home run in the first inning. He then hit a two-run double to break a scoreless tie in the seventh inning in the opener against Brown. In the nightcap, Cruz's eighth-inning home run spurred the Big Red's rally and eventual 6-5 victory. … Junior RHP Brent Jones tossed his first complete game of the season in Game 1 against Brown. He surrendered just four hits and an unearned run while striking out seven without issuing a walk. Freshman Paul Balestrieri then earned the victory in the second game with five innings of scoreless relief. … Junior 1B/LF Ryan Karl leads the team with a .303 batting average, nine doubles and gaudy .596 slugging percentage. He is also tied with Cruz for the team lead in home runs (five), RBI (21) and triples (1). As of Monday, he and Cruz ranked 41st in home runs per game (0.21) and Karl is 58th in the country in slugging (.596)  … Junior CF JD Whetsel, who had an 11-game hitting streak broken last week is batting .297, exclusively from the leadoff spot. He has a team-high 15 walks and 11 stolen bases, which is tied for the team lead with senior SS Tom D'Alessandro. … Six of the Big Red's nine most frequent starting batters are hitting .280 or better. … The Big Red's pitching staff has a strong 3.27 earned run average – though it would be an even better 2.46 without the effects of a three-game series in March at the launching pad at James Madison. The staff posted a 3.13 ERA last season, which was the best the program had seen since its 2.25 ERA in 1973. … Sophomore LHP Michael Byrne (2-2, 1.56) hasn't yet surrendered a home run in 34.2 innings of work. He was a hard-luck loser Saturday at Yale, when he was saddled with an unearned run after his departure in the eighth inning of a 1-0 game. … The Big Red has lost just one of its eight 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, Harvard, George Mason and Yale. The Big Red then swept Brown on Sunday.
 
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 181-160-1 (.531).
 
ABOUT BINGHAMTON
The Bearcats are four games below .500 coming into their Tuesday non-league game against Bucknell, but they have also won four straight. Following a midweek rout of NJIT, Binghamton swept a three-game series at home against Maryland-Baltimore County. Senior CF Bill Bereszniewicz is the only player to start all 22 of the team's games, leading the way with a .333 average, 19 runs, two triples and eight stolen bases. His seven doubles are also tied for the team lead with senior 2B Daniel Nevares. … Sophomore 3B Reed Gamache ranks second on the team with a .323 average across 17 starts. Junior LF Jake Thomas is batting .308 with four of the team's six home runs and a team-high 16 RBI. … Junior RHP Jack Rogalla (3-3, 2.15, CG), sophomore RHP Jake Cryts (2-3, 3.21, CG) and junior RHP Mike Urbanski (2-1, 5.40) comprise the Bearcats' weekend rotation. Freshman RHP Casey Wenzel (0-1, 6.35), junior LHP Mike Kaufman (1-1, 6.57) and junior LHP Mike Meleski (0-1, 16.20) have also started one game apiece this season. ... Sophomore RHP/OF Mike Bunal (1-1, 2.25) has two of the team's three saves. He is tied with freshman RHP/1B Jextin Pugh (0-1, 4.40) for the team lead in appearances out of the bullpen with nine.
 
SERIES HISTORY vs. BINGHAMTON
Cornell holds an 18-12 lead in the all-time series after the Bearcats won last season's lone meeting, 6-5, on April 23, 2013 at Varsity Field. Ryan Plantier was 2-for-3 with a home run and three RBI for the Big Red. The teams met briefly two weeks earlier, but the game at Hoy Field was rained out in the fifth inning. The teams first met in 1984, with the Big Red sweeping a doubleheader at Vestal, N.Y.
 
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 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.
 
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 84th in the nation with 1.25 steals per game as of Monday. Senior SS Tom D'Alessandro is tied for the team with 11 stolen bases, including a program-record six in a March 9 victory at George Washington. His average of 0.50 steals per game ranks 33rd 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 11 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. He is currently 2-2 with a 1.56 ERA following his seven innings of shutout ball Saturday at Yale.
 
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 2-1 with a 2.70 ERA and a team-best 30 strikeouts in 30 innings through a team-high six starts this season.
 
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.
 
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 last week. His five home runs and 21 RBI are both tied for the team lead with junior 1B/OF Ryan Karl.
 
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 kick off the Lou Gehrig Division portion of its Ivy League schedule this weekend with a four games at Penn. The Quakers are a perfect 8-0 in Ivy play so far and riding an 11-game winning streak. The series will feature doubleheaders at noon on both Saturday, April 12 and Sunday, April 13 at Meiklejohn Stadium.