ITHACA, N.Y. — The baseball team is set to kick off a five-game home stand with a non-league game against regional rival Binghamton at 4 p.m. Tuesday on the friendly turf at Hoy Field. The game will be broadcast on the Ivy League Digital Network.
 
GAME INFORMATION
Binghamton at Cornell
DATE: Tuesday, April 7, 2015
TIME: 4 p.m.
RECORDS: Cornell 8-16 (5-3 Ivy League); Binghamton 6-12 (3-3 America East)
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads, 19-14
LAST MEETING: Binghamton won, 8-6, on April 22, 2014 at Hoy Field in Ithaca.
SITE: Hoy Field; Ithaca, N.Y.
VIDEO: Ivy League Digital Network
AUDIO: Ivy League Digital Network
LIVE STATS: CornellBigRed.com
 
ABOUT THE BIG RED
Cornell split a pair of Ivy League doubleheaders at Dartmouth and Harvard over the weekend, leaving it with a 8-16 record and 5-3 mark in league play. Senior RHP Brian McAfee (4-1, 0.95) tossed a two-hit shutout against Dartmouth in Saturday's opener, with sophomore Tommy Wagner driving in senior Ryan Karl for the game's only run. The Big Green won the second game, 8-5, then Harvard opened Sunday's doubleheader with a 14-2 victory. Senior Kevin Tatum drove in both Big Red runs in that game with his first home run of the season, then he went 2-for-3 with two RBIs in the second game, a 5-4 victory for the Big Red. Senior RHP Kellen Urbon (1-2, 1.48) earned his first victory of the season by working six innings, surrendering just an unearned run. Sophomore RHP Paul Balestrieri (0-0, 3.48) then notched his fourth save of the season in his team-high 11th appearance out of the bullpen. … Cornell's team batting average has shot up 21 points to .241 in the last eight days. The Big Red had just 47 runs its first 14 games (3.36/game), but then scored 31 in its first four Ivy games (7.75/game). Tatum had a nine-game hitting streak halted Saturday, but he leads the team with a .333 batting average and 21 RBIs. His home run against Harvard is the Big Red's third this season, with senior 1B/DH Spencer Scorza and sophomore UTL Jamie Smith providing the others. Senior 2B/OF Dan Morris has a team-high 10 doubles to go with his .315 average. … Cornell's pitching continues to be a strength. 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.
 
ON THE CUSP
Underlying Cornell's 8-16 overall record is a 3-9 record in games decided by one run — and two of those victories came against Dartmouth and Harvard last weekend. Before the midweek games at Richmond and Towson, 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.
 
MAC IS BACK
Senior RHP Brian McAfee (4-1, 0.95) has made a huge impact in his return after missing nearly all of last season with an injury. In front of several professional scouts in a March 1 game against No. 1-ranked Virginia in Myrtle Beach, S.C., McAfee tossed seven scoreless innings without issuing any walks. No Virginia runners advanced past second base, and McAfee was fittingly named the Ivy League Pitcher of the Week for his effort. He has issued no walks in five of his six starts this year. As of Monday, he ranked third in the country in walks allowed per nine innings (0.47), fourth in WHIP (0.68), sixth in ERA (0.95) and 16th in strikeout-to-walk ratio (14.00).
 
BYRNE NOTICE
Junior LHP Michael Byrne (0-5, 7.11) 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.
 
URBON LEGEND
Senior RHP Kellen Urbon (1-2, 1.48) 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.
 
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 194-186-1 (.510).
 
ABOUT BINGHAMTON
The Bearcats will be playing their third game at Hoy Field in a span of two days after their two-game sweep of UMass-Lowell on Monday, 5-4 and 8-0. The America East contests were moved to the Big Red's home field with Binghamton's field still not suitable for play this spring. The victories halted a four-game losing streak, which include a three-game sweep from host UMBC and a non-league game March 24 at Bucknell. … The Beacats are batting .250 as a team. Senior OF Jake Thomas leads the squad with a .359 average and team-high six doubles. Senior OF Zach Blanden is batting .348 and his three triples are tied for the team lead with sophomore C Eddie Posavec, who enters today batting .308. Freshman INF Brendan Skidmore has two of the team's four home runs to date and also leads the Bearcats with 14 RBIs. … Freshman RHP Jake Wloczewski (0-0, 6.14) is Binghamton's probable starter. He has made two starts among five appearances to date. Junior RHP Rob Hardy (1-2, 5.08), junior RHP Mike Bunal (2-3, 5.09) and senior RHP Greg Ostner (1-4, 6.08) have made all of Binghamton's other starts. Senior RHP Anthony Grillini (2-0, 1.72) and freshman RHP Dylan Stock (0-0, 4.00) have each made a team-high six appearances out of the bullpen. Binghamton has a team ERA of 6.06.
 
SERIES HISTORY vs. BINGHAMTON
Cornell holds a 19-14 lead in the all-time series after winning one of three meetings with Binghamton last year. Senior Kevin Tatum drove in the winning run as part of the Big Red's five-run eighth inning in a 6-1 victory on April 9 last year, but the Bearcats responded with a 7-0 victory in a last-minute addition to the schedule on April 17 followed by an 8-6 victory on April 22 — both at Hoy Field. The teams first met in 1984, with the Big Red sweeping a doubleheader at Binghamton's home site in Vestal, N.Y.
 
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.
 
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 opens the Lou Gehrig Division portion of its Ivy League schedule with four games against division-leading Penn in the form of doubleheaders at noon on Saturday, April 11 and Sunday, April 12. Cornell will travel to hallowed baseball grounds at 2 p.m. Tuesday, April 14 when it takes on Siena in a doubleheader at Doubleday Field in Cooperstown, home to Baseball Hall of Fame.