SPARTANBURG, S.C. — The baseball team will make the long trip to the Palmetto State this weekend for a three-game series against Southern Conference contender Wofford. The teams open up with a doubleheader scheduled for a 1 p.m. start on Saturday, followed by the series finale at noon Sunday at Russell C. King Field.
 
SERIES INFORMATION
Cornell at Wofford
FORMAT: Three nine-inning games
SITE: Russell C. King Field — Spartanburg, S.C.
RECORDS: Cornell 1-2, Wofford 10-3
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads, 2-0
VIDEO: http://www.socondigitalnetwork.com/wofford/game/cornell136-at-wofford-on-03132016
AUDIO: http://wofford.leanplayer.com/
STATS: http://www.sidearmstats.com/wofford/baseball/
- - - - - - - - -
Probable starters
GAME 1: 1 p.m., Saturday, March 12   •   Cornell (RHP — Paul Balestrieri, 0-0, 5.40)   •   Wofford (RHP Matt Milburn, 3-0, 2.84)
GAME 2: *4 p.m., Saturday, March 12   •   Cornell (LHP — Michael Byrne, 0-0, 0.00)   •   Wofford (LHP Adam Scott, 2-0, 2.84)
GAME 3: Noon, Sunday, March 13   •   Cornell (RHP — Tim Willittes, 0-1, 10.38)   •   Wofford (RHP Jacob Condra-Bogan, 1-0, 6.32)
Of note: Saturday's second game will start approximately 30 minutes after the completion of Game 1.
 
ABOUT THE BIG RED
Cornell kicked off its season and the Dan Pepicelli era last weekend at the RussMatt Invitational, winning one of three games against Northeastern in Winter Haven, Fla. The Big Red won the second game of the series, 7-5, when junior 1B Cole Rutherford launched a two-run home run with two outs. Sophomore LHP Justin Lewis, who came on to record the final out of the eighth when he took a toss from junior C C.J. Price to cut down a would-be run-scoring wild pitch, then worked through a quiet bottom of the ninth to record the victory. Northeastern won the first game, 6-0, and Sunday's rubber game, 11-0. … Rutherford leads the team with a .375 average and has two of the Big Red's four extra-base hits. The other two are doubles by sophomore OF Dale Wickham, who is second on the team with a .364 average. Junior 3B Tommy Wagner is 4-for-12 to start the year after leading the squad with a .308 average last season. … Cornell was 13-27 overall and 9-11 in the Ivy League last season. Underlying the overall record was a 5-14 record in one-run games. … In 2012, the Big Red won the program's first league title since 1977 and its first Ivy league title since the circuit began sponsoring baseball 20 years prior.
 
THE HEAD COACH
Dan Pepicelli is in his first season as the Ted Thoren Head Coach of Baseball at Cornell University, after helping lead Clemson to the NCAA tournament in all six years as the program's pitching coach and stints as head coach at St. John Fisher and Hartwick. Clemson's record was 231-149 (.608) in Pepicelli's six years with the program, including three seasons as the associate head coach, two more as the assistant head coach, and one as an assistant coach. He became the Tigers' first pitching coach to lead a staff to the College World Series in his first season with the squad, then led the pitching staff to a season earned-run average below 4.00 for four consecutive seasons from 2011-14. Pepicelli has more than 200 career victories as a head coach.
 
ABOUT WOFFORD
The Terriers are 10-4 this season after suffering a 7-1 loss to nationally-ranked South Carolina on Tuesday night. Wofford opened its season with six straight home victories in late February, then suffered a pair of midweek shutout losses to Clemson and USC Upstate before taking three of four last weekend against visiting Ohio. … Sophomore OF McClain Bradley leads the team with a .340 average and six stolen bases. Senior 2B Alec Paradowski is batting .327 with a team-best .571 slugging percentage, aided by five doubles and a pair of triples in just 14 games, and senior OF Demetrius Jennings is batting .324. … Wofford led the nation with 138 stolen bases last year, and they're on a similar clip this season with 28 steals in 14 games to date. … The Terriers set a program record with 39 victories last season. … Senior RHP Matt Milburn (3-0, 2.84) was the 2015 Southern Conference Pitch of the Year, and senior RHP Will Stillman (1-0, 0.84, 5 SV) led the league with 15 saves a year ago.
 
SERIES HISTORY vs. WOFFORD
Cornell has never lost to Wofford — but the teams haven't met in more than 100 years. The Big Red won the first meeting, 6-2 on April 9, 1901, then returned to Spartanburg to kick off the following season with a 6-0 victory on March 29, 1902.
 
BYRNE NOTICE
Senior LHP Michael Byrne worked 4 2/3 scoreless innings in his season debut against Northeastern last Saturday, taking a no-decision in a game the Big Red eventually would end up winning. Byrne has twice earned All-Ivy League accolades, garnering second-team honors in both his freshman and sophomore seasons. Though he struggled to an inflated ERA last season, he still led the team with 45 strikeouts. Cornell has two other returning All-Ivy winners — both senior OF Jordan Winawer (2014) and junior 3B Tommy Wagner (2015) have garnered honorable mention.
 
FOR STARTERS …
Of Cornell's 40 games last season, just 11 were started by players who return to the team this season. Senior LHP Michael Byrne has eight of those, while the other three were late-season outings by junior RHP Paul Balestrieri. The New Jersey product has made the full-time transition to the rotation after primarily serving as one of the team's best late-inning options over his first two years on East Hill. Junior RHP Tim Willittes is also in the starting ranks after missing the entirety of the 2015 season with an injury.
 
UP NEXT
The Big Red will continue its stretch of 15 consecutive games away from home to start the season with a four-game series at Bucknell from March 19-20. Cornell then makes its second trip of the year to Florida for a five games in six nights against Central Florida and Rollins before returning to Ithaca, N.Y. for its home and Ivy League debut with doubleheaders against Harvard on April 2 and Dartmouth on April 3.