ITHACA, N.Y. — Riding a three-game winning streak, the baseball team will wrap up its season at 2 p.m. Wednesday with a non-league doubleheader against Canisius at Hoy Field. The games will be broadcast on the Ivy League Digital Network.
 
GAME INFORMATION
Canisius at Cornell
FORMAT: Two seven-inning games
TIME: First game starts at 2 p.m.; second starts approximately 30 minutes after the completion of the first game
DATE: Wednesday, April 29, 2015
SITE: Hoy Field – Ithaca, N.Y.
RECORDS: Cornell 12-26 (9-11 Ivy League); Canisius 20-24 (9-6 MAAC)
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads, 10-3
LAST MEETING: Canisius won, 14-5, on April 4, 2013 in Ithaca, N.Y.
WEBCAST: Ivy League Digital Network
AUDIO: Ivy League Digital Network
LIVE STATS: CornellBigRed.com
 
IN THE REARVIEW
Cornell won the final three games of a four-game set against Princeton last weekend, the squad's final Ivy League games of the season. Sophomore SS Frankie Padulo was 5-for-11 with three doubles, three walks and three RBIs over the series. After being blanked in a 1-0 loss to start the weekend, the Big Red rebounded with a season-high offensive input in Friday's second game for a 13-5 victory. Sophomore 2B/3B Tommy Wagner drove in the first four runs of a 10-0 victory in Game 1 on Sunday, with senior Brian McAfee tossing a four-hit shutout. Senior LHP Eric Upton then worked five scoreless innings in relief to earn the victory in a 2-1 win in the night cap. Senior 1B/DH Spencer Scorza had five hits over Sunday's two games, including two doubles.
 
THE OFFENSE
Cornell is batting .277 in Ivy League play and .250 overall this season, generally trending upward as the season has progressed. … After missing the first month of the season due to injury, sophomore 2B/3B Tommy Wagner has finally accumulated enough at-bats to qualify as the team's leading hitter with a .318 average. He had a season-high seven-game hitting streak snapped on Sunday. … Senior 2B/3B Kevin Tatum is batting .316 and leads the team with a 26 RBIs and a .392 on-base percentages. He has drawn a walk in six straight games and has reached base safely in 26 of his last 28 games. … Senior 1B/DH Spencer Scorza has 15 hits over his last 11 games and leads the team with 11 doubles. … Senior 1B Ryan Karl leads the team with two home runs (both hit two weeks ago at Columbia). The Big Red's other home runs this season have come from Tatum, Scorza, UTL Jamie Smith and freshman OF Pierre Le Dorze (.368 in 12 games).
 
THE PITCHING
Cornell has two of the Ivy League's top five pitchers, by measure of earned-run average. Senior RHP Brian McAfee (5-2, 1.77) has just six walks in his nine starts. Both he and senior RHP Kellen Urbon (2-4, 2.36) pitched complete games against Princeton. … Sophomore RHP Paul Balestrieri (1-0, 4.54) has four saves and a team-high 14 appearances, but he earned his first victory of the season after a six-inning start on Friday at Princeton. … As a staff, Cornell 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 5.59.
 
MILESTONE WATCH
In his seventh season as the Ted Thoren Head Coach of Baseball at Cornell University, Bill Walkenbach can reach the 200-win plateau for his collegiate coaching career if the Big Red's sweep Canisius. 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 10th season as a collegiate head coach, Walkenbach has a career record of 198-196-1 (.503).
 
MAC IS BACK
Senior RHP Brian McAfee (5-2, 1.77) 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. His ERA ranks second in the Ivy League, and his .210 opponents' batting average ranks first.
 
URBON LEGEND
Senior RHP Kellen Urbon (2-4, 2.36) 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 a solid starter this season, having won the Ivy League Pitcher of the Week Award on April 14 after his three-hit shutout of Penn two days earlier.
 
SPEED KILLS
Senior OF JD Whetsel missed the first half of this year due to injury, but he's already racked up nine stolen bases to move into a tie for second place on the program's all-time list with 49. He recently passed his head coach, Bill Walkenbach '98, who ranks fourth with 47 stolen bases. Whetsel is tied for second with Michael Macrie '99, but has a long way to go to catch the program record of 80, set by John Kresho '91.
 
ABOUT CANISIUS
The Golden Griffins dropped the final two games of a three-game MAAC series last weekend at Monmouth. Canisius won the opener, 6-0, and held leads in all of the games before suffering 3-1 and 10-9 losses in the final two. The Golden Griffins are 11-18 in non-league play. … Three hitters are batting north of .320 for the season. Senior 1B/3B Connor Panas leads the team with a .339 average, .453 on-base percentage and 13 stolen bases. Sophomore INF Jake Lumley is batting .328 with a team-high three triples. Junior 1B/OF Brett Siddall is batting .324 with a team-high 10 home runs and 41 RBIs. Junior INF Anthony Massicci (.269) is an Ithaca High graduate. Canisius is batting .274 as a team. … The Golden Griffins' weekend rotation consists of senior RHP Devon Stewart, Freshman LHP J.P. Stevenson and Junior LHP Alex Godzak. Sophomore RHP Josh Shepley (1-2, 7.79) has started five games, and junior RHP Aaron Casper (0-0, 5.14) and junior RHP Mike Elwood (0-2, 11.22) have started three apiece. Senior LHP Eric Stoltzenburg (1-0, 3.60) and sophomore LHP Zachary Sloan (2-1, 6.43) have a team-high 15 relief appearances. Junior RHP Iannic Remillard (0-3, 4.70) has all seven of the team's saves and 29 strikeouts in 23 innings of work. Canisius' team ERA is 5.20.
 
SERIES HISTORY vs. CANISIUS
The Big Red holds a big 10-3 advantage in the all-time series, but the Golden Griffins won the last meeting during the 2013 season, 14-5. The game was tied through four innings and Cornell's deficit was just two runs after the eighth inning before the visitors blew the gates open with a seven-run ninth. Senior JD Whetsel was 2-for-4 with a double from the leadoff spot, and senior Kevin Tatum drove in a pair of runs for the Big Red. … Cornell and Canisius played each other 10 times over a 13-year span from 1979-1991, with the Big Red winning the first nine meetings before the Golden Griffins secured a 4-3 victory in the second game of a doubleheader on April 23, 1991. The Big Red has scored at least nine runs in seven of its last eight victories over Canisius. … The teams were scheduled to meet for a doubleheader during the 2014 season in Buffalo, but it was canceled due to inclement weather.
 
ON THE CUSP
Underlying Cornell's 12-26 overall record is a 4-13 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).