ITHACA, N.Y. — After a long road of 14 games away from home, the baseball team will begin its hunt of an Ivy League championship with a pair of noon doubleheaders against Yale and Brown at Hoy Field. The Bulldogs visit on Sunday, while the two games against the Bears is scheduled for Monday.
 
GAME INFORMATION
Yale at Cornell
DATE: Sunday, March 29, 2015
TIME: First game at noon, second game approximately 30 minutes following completion of the first game
RECORDS: Cornell 3-11, Yale 6-6
SERIES RECORD: Yale leads, 101-70
LAST MEETING: Teams split two games April 5, 2014 in West Haven, Conn. (L 1-0 in 8 innings, W 6-4).
SITE: Hoy Field; Ithaca, N.Y.
VIDEO: Ivy League Digital Network
AUDIO (free): Ivy League Digital Network
LIVE STATS: CornellBigRed.com
 
Brown at Cornell
DATE: Monday, March 30, 2015
TIME: First game at noon, second game approximately 30 minutes following completion of the first game
RECORDS*: Cornell 3-11, Brown 4-12
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads, 58-57-2
LAST MEETING: Cornell swept a doubleheader on March 6, 2014 in Providence, R.I. (4-1 W, 6-5 W)
SITE: Hoy Field; Ithaca, N.Y.
VIDEO: Ivy League Digital Network
AUDIO (free): Ivy League Digital Network
LIVE STATS: CornellBigRed.com
 (* — does not include Sunday's results)
 
ABOUT THE BIG RED
Underlying Cornell's 3-11 record are eight losses by one-run deficits — including the final three games of a four-game set last weekend at Bucknell. The Big Red topped the reigning Patriot League champion in Saturday's series opener, 3-0, behind six shutout innings from senior RHP Brian McAfee (2-1, 1.12) and the second save of the season from sophomore RHP Paul Balestrieri (0-0, 1.84). Senior RHP Kellen Urbon was also strong in Game 2 of the series, surrendering two runs (one earned) in five innings. But Urbon was the hard-luck loser when the game was called after six innings due to darkness. Bucknell swept the Sunday doubleheader despite an 11-strikeout performance by junior LHP Michael Byrne (0-4, 4.42) in the opener and a four-RBI effort from senior 1B/DH Spencer Scorza in the nightcap. … Senior IF/OF Kevin Tatum was 6-for-13 in the series to push his average to a team-best .333. He has hits in seven of his last eight games, including multiple hits in five of those contests. Tatum also leads the team with 11 walks to boost his onbase percentage to .415. … Senior IF Dan Morris leads the team with five doubles and ranks second among qualifiers batters with a .268 average. Scorza's nine RBIs pace the team, one ahead of Tatum's eight and Morris' seven. Sophomore OF Jamie Smith has the team's lone home run to date. … The Big Red is batting .220 in the early going, but the team's pitching staff has a 2.79 earned-run average. Despite being eight games under .500 entering this weekend, Cornell's staff ERA remarkably close to its opponents' (2.77).
 
LOOKING BACK
Cornell was 18-21 overall and 9-11 in Ivy League play for the 2014 season. Senior 1B/DH Ryan Karl was named an All-Ivy League First Team selection last year, which was his first with the Big Red since he transferred from Louisville (via Catawba Valley Community College). He led the team with a .280 average, nine home runs, 32 RBIs and a .552 slugging percentage. … Despite losing Brent Jones to the Arizona Diamondbacks in the fourth round of the MLB Draft last summer, the Big Red returns an extremely strong pitching staff, which has posted a sub-4.00 earned-run average in each of the last three seasons. Junior LHP Michael Byrne (0-2, 2.89) is a two-time All-Ivy Second Team pick, with a 3-4 record, 1.86 ERA and team-high 49 strikeouts last season. Senior RHP Kellen Urbon (2012 First Team), senior RHP Brian McAfee (2012 Second Team) and senior LHP Zach McCulley (2013 Honorable Mention) are other former All-Ivy picks.
 
THE HEAD COACH
In his seventh 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 189-181-1 (.511).
 
ABOUT YALE
The Bulldogs were 11-9 in Ivy League play last season, which was good for a first-place tie in the Red Rolfe Division, but their season ended with a division playoff loss to Dartmouth. Yale is coming off a losses of 18-1 against Connecticut and 11-3 against Quinnipiac in neutral-site games over the week, but had won five of six before that — including a 23-8 win over a Hartford team that Cornell also defeated earlier this season. … Senior 1B/OF Eric Hsieh has a gaudy .477 batting average through 12 games. He also leads the squad with 13 runs and 11 walks. Sophomore 3B Richard Slenker, an All-Ivy Second Team pick last year, is batting .367 and has the team's lone home run to date. Sophomore C Andrew Herrera has team-high 10 RBIs. … Junior RHP Chris Lanham (2-1, 4.50) and junior RHP Chris Moates (1-0, 6.19) are the team's top two starters. Sophomore RHP Chasen Ford (1-1, 9.15) and senior RHP Green Campbell (0-2, 46.29) have also made two starts apiece. Freshman RHP Mason Kukowski (2-0, 2.31) has a team-high nine appearances out of the bullpen and has the team's only save to date. The team's earned-run average is 9.51 entering the weekend.
 
SERIES HISTORY vs. YALE
Yale holds a 101-70 lead in the all-time series, though the teams have split doubleheaders in both 2013 and 2014. Last year, junior starting LHP Michael Byrne worked into extra innings while striking out eight, but he took a hard-luck loss when the Bulldogs plated an unearned run in the opener of the twin bill. Junior Jordan Winawer hit a two-run single in the ninth inning to propel Cornell to a 6-4 victory in the second game, with senior LHP Nick Busto tossing seven innings for the no-decision and senior RHP Kellen Urbon earning the win in relief. The last time Cornell had a two-game sweep of Yale at Hoy Field was in 1982. The first meeting between the teams came in 1887.
 
ABOUT BROWN
The Bears won three of five in a recent trip to the D.C. area to take on Georgetown and George Mason, though they are scheduled to open play this weekend with a Sunday doubleheader at Princeton. The wins at Georgetown snapped a six-game losing streak, with their only other win this season coming against Northeastern. Brown was 13-24 and 6-14 in Ivy play last year. … Sophomore CF Robert Henry is batting .397 and also leads the team with 17 runs, six doubles, two triples, 12 walks and six stolen bases. Junior 2B Noah Shulman is batting .274 with a team-best 13 RBIs. His three home runs are tied for the team lead with junior LF Jake Levine, who is batting .347 entering the weekend. … Fourteen of Brown's 16 starts have come from Freshman RHP Reid Anderson (2-1, 5.68), junior RHP Kevin Guthrie (0-1, 5.73), senior RHP Dave St. Lawrence (1-2, 7.98) and senior RHP Eddie Fitzpatrick (0-3, 8.64). Freshman RHP Dante Bosnic (1-0, 3.12) and senior RHP Taylor Wright (0-1, 4.91) have six appearances apiece out of the bullpen. The Bears have a team ERA of 7.88 entering the weekend.
 
SERIES HISTORY vs. BROWN
The Big Red has won its last seven games against the Bears, including a sweep of last season's doubleheader in Rhode Island, to take a 58-57-2 lead in the all-time series. After winning the opener, 4-1, the Big Red got a stellar performance from sophomore RHP Paul Balestrieri in long relief during the second game. He tossed five scoreless innings while fanning five to earn his first collegiate victory in Cornell, setting the table for the Big Red's three-run eighth inning in a 6-5 win. Senior OF JD Whetsel hit a two-run double to plate the winner. Cornell's first victory against Brown came all the way back on May 7, 1912.
 
OPPORTUNISTIC WINAWER
Junior Jordan Winawer started the final 15 games at a corner outfield position for the Big Red – his first collegiate starts following an injury-washed 2013 season. To say Winawer made the most of his opportunity would be putting it lightly. He was the Big Red's best hitter over that stretch, leading the squad with a .436 batting average. For his efforts, he was named the Ivy League Rookie of the Week on March 15, 2014. He also had an eight-game hitting streak in April and later earned All-Ivy League Honorable Mention.
 
BYRNE NOTICE
Junior LHP Michael Byrne had a career-high 11 strikeouts in last Sunday's first game at Bucknell. He set down the Bison 1-2-3 in five of his six innings and became the first Big Red pitcher to record 11 strikeouts since Corey Pappel on April 29, 2009 in a divisional playoff game against Princeton. He was also the first Big Red pitcher to reach double-digits in strikeouts since senior Brian McAfee's career-high 10 Ks on March 11, 2012 at George Washington. Byrne, a two-time All-Ivy League Second Team honoree, led the team with a 1.86 ERA and 49 strikeouts last season.
 
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. Three are still on the team — Kellen Urbon (unanimous First Team selection; Ivy Rookie of the Year), Brian McAfee (Second Team) and Kevin Tatum (Honorable Mention).
 
URBON LEGEND
Senior 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, then made seven appearances last season.
 
UP NEXT
The Big Red is scheduled kick off a six-game road trip at 3 p.m. Tuesday at Richmond before another non-league contest at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday at Towson State. The team will then head to New England to wrap up its Ivy League interdivision play with a Saturday doubleheader at defending Red Rolfe Division champion Dartmouth and a Sunday doubleheader at Harvard.