LOUDONVILLE, N.Y. — The baseball team kicks off a stretch of eight straight games away from home at 2 p.m. Tuesday with a non-league contest at Siena.
 
GAME INFORMATION
Cornell at Siena
FORMAT: One nine-inning game
TIME: 2 p.m.
DATE: Tuesday, April 14, 2015
SITE: Siena Field – Loudonville, N.Y.
RECORDS: Cornell 9-20 (6-6 Ivy League); Siena 7-19 (3-3 MAAC)
SERIES RECORD: Siena leads, 19-12-1
LAST MEETING: Siena swept a doubleheader, 6-2 and 5-4, on April 17, 2012 in Ithaca, N.Y.
AUDIO: Ivy League Digital Network
LIVE STATS: www.SienaSaints.com
 
THIS ONE'S FOR "COURT"
Courtney Erickson '93, a longtime friend to both the Cornell and Siena communities, always dreamed of having the schools' baseball teams play their annual series at historic Doubleday Field in Cooperstown. While Tuesday's meeting had to be moved to Siena because of inadequate field conditions at Doubleday Field, the game is still being played in Erickson's memory. He passed away July 5, 2013 after a courageous battle with pancreatic and liver cancer. Erickson's nephew, James, will throw out the ceremonial first pitch, and his father, Jack, brother, Phil, and sister-in-law, Sarah, will all be in attendance. Admission to the game is free, but donations will be accepted to help benefit the Jack Falvo III Foundation – "Jack's Place" — which is a prospective Hospitality House For Families of Children & Adult Patients at Sunnyview Rehabilitation Hospital, Ellis Hospital & other local Health Care Facilities.
 
IN THE REARVIEW
Cornell won once in a four-game divisional series against Penn last weekend at Hoy Field. The front-running Quakers swept Saturday's games, 13-8 and 9-2, before the Big Red turned it on Sunday. Senior RHP Kellen Urbon (2-2, 1.21) delivered a three-hit shutout in the series' third game, taking a no-hitter into the fifth inning and fanning five to sput the Big Red to a 2-0 victory. Cornell then took an early lead in the finale, but eventually dropped a 5-4 decision to fall four games behind Penn and Columbia in the Ivy League's Lou Gehrig Division standings with eight games to play.
 
THE OFFENSE
Cornell is batting .267 in Ivy League play and .242 overall this season. The offense is generally trending upward — the Big Red had just 47 runs its first 14 games (3.36/game), then scored 31 in its first four Ivy games (7.75/game). Senior 2B/3B Kevin Tatum leads the team with a .350 average and 23 RBIs. He is currently riding an eight-game hitting streak, and has hits in 18 of his last 19 games. He also has one of the team's four runs this season, with senior 1B/DH Spencer Scorza (.259, 17 RBIs), sophomore UTL Jamie Smith and freshman OF Pierre Le Dorze (.333 in 8 games) providing the others. … Senior 2B/OF Dan Morris has a team-high 10 doubles to go with his .300 average. … Sophomore 2B/3B Tommy Wagner still hasn't enough at-bats to officially qualify as a regular player, but his .304 average in 17 games would rank second on team if he did.
 
THE PITCHING
Cornell's pitching continues to be a strength, especially with its top-tier starters. The team had a 2.98 ERA as of March 30, but a stretch of six games in four days forced the Big Red to use a piecemeal pitching staff in losses of 23-7 to Richmond and 11-5 to Towson last week. The Big Red's ERA has since ballooned to a misleading 5.16. Sophomore RHP Paul Balestrieri (0-0, 2.88) has four saves and worked 4.1 innings of scoreless relief Sunday, his team-high 12th appearance. Sophomore RHP Peter Lannoo (0-0, 2.61) has been a pleasant surprise, having just joined the program as a walk-on this season. He has 10 strikeouts and one walk over 10.1 innings in six relief appearances.
 
MAC IS BACK
Senior RHP Brian McAfee (4-1, 1.67) has made a huge impact in his return after missing nearly all of last season with an injury. McAfee was named the Ivy League Pitcher of the Week on April 7 after tossing a two-hit shutout the previous Saturday at Dartmouth, spurring the Big Red to a 1-0 victory. It was the second time this season he won the award. The first was early in the season when he worked seven scoreless innings without issuing any walks against then-No. 1 Virginia. No Virginia runners advanced past second base as McAfee established himself as one of the Ivy League's top professional prospects in front of several scouts that day. He has issued no walks in five of his seven starts this year.
 
URBON LEGEND
Senior RHP Kellen Urbon (2-2, 1.21) 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. He has been solid as a starter this season, having surrendered just five earned runs in seven starts.
 
BYRNE NOTICE
Junior LHP Michael Byrne (0-6, 7.62) had a career-high 11 strikeouts in a March 22 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.
 
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 195-190-1 (.505).
 
ABOUT SIENA
The Saints halted a four-game losing streak with a 9-0 victory in the finale of a four-game series at Division I independent NYIT over the weekend. Siena is 3-3 in MAAC play through three-game series with Quinnipiac and Niagara. … The Saints are batting .204 as a team. Senior 3B Justin Esquerra leads the squad with a .307 average and 12 RBIs. His three home runs are also tied for the team lead with freshman INF Joe Drpich (.271), and his 11 runs scored is tied for the team lead with sophomore CF Dan Swain (.244). Swain traditionally hits leadoff and has eight of team's 12 stolen bases. Freshman 2B Jordan Bishop is batting .275 and has a team-high six doubles. … The Saints' team earned run average is 5.79. The weekend rotation of senior RHP Ed Lewicki (2-3, 6.32), junior RHP Bryan Goossens (1-5, 4.93), senior RHP Matt Quintana (1-2, 2.51) and sophomore LHP Chris Amorosi (2-2, 2.89) will likely not see action against the Big Red. The only other pitchers with starting experience this year are sophomore RHP Taylor Ahearn (1-2, 10.80), senior RHP Rick Morales (0-3, 12.10) and junior LHP Tom O'Brien (0-1, 32.40). Junior LHP Kyano Cummings (0-0, 4.50) has a team-high 12 appearances out of the bullpen.
 
SERIES HISTORY vs. SIENA
The Saints own a 19-12-1 advantange, but inclement weather has claimed the last four games scheduled between the two teams over the last two years. Last year's games in Ithaca were never started, while the 2013 set up of games at Siena was washed out by rain during the third inning of the opener. Siena swept a doubleheader on April 17, 2012 in the teams' last official meeting. The Saints were the only team to sweep the Big Red that season, which resulted in 31 victories and an Ivy League title. The teams split doubleheaders in the three years prior to that.
 
ON THE CUSP
Underlying Cornell's 9-20 overall record is a 3-10 record in games decided by one run. By March 30, Cornell had an ERA of nearly a full run lower than its opposition, despite sitting six games under .500. The Big Red yielded 30 unearned runs in its first 18 games.
 
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.
 
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).
 
UP NEXT
The Big Red continues its road-heavy stretch with a return to Ivy League play next weekend with a pair of noon doubleheaders at defending Ivy champion Columbia on Saturday and Sunday. Cornell then visits Binghamton on Wednesday, April 22 before two more Ivy games Friday, April 24 at Princeton to wrap up the road portion of its regular-season schedule.