PHILADELPHIA — The baseball team returns to Lou Gehrig Division play this weekend at Penn with a chance to surpass the Quakers in the standings and stay within striking distance of leaders Princeton. The series will feature a pair of doubleheaders starting at noon on both Saturday and Sunday. All four games will be broadcast on the subscription-based Ivy League Digital Network, and Sunday's games will be simulcast for free on ESPN3.
 
WEEKEND INFORMATION
Cornell at Penn
FORMAT: First game seven innings, second game nine innings both days
SITE: Meiklejohn Stadium — Philadelphia, Pa.
RECORDS: Cornell 12-16, 5-7 Ivy; Penn 15-18, 6-6 Ivy
SERIES RECORDS: Penn leads Cornell, 151-119-2
VIDEO (Sunday only): ESPN3 (Game 1) (Game 2)
VIDEO (all games): Ivy League Digital Network
STATS: www.pennathletics.com
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Probable starters
Game 1: Noon Saturday, April 23   •   Cornell (RHP Paul Balestrieri, 2-4, 3.83)   •   Penn (RHP Jake Cousins, 3-3, 4.09)
Game 2: ~2:30 p.m. Saturday, April 23  •   Cornell (RHP Peter Lannoo, 2-2, 6.51)   •   Penn (LHP Gabe Kleiman, 3-2, 2.25)
Game 3: Noon Sunday, April 24   •   Cornell (LHP Justin Lewis, 2-0, 4.28)   •   Penn (LHP Mike Reitcheck, 1-4, 4.46)
Game 4: ~2:30 p.m. Sunday, April 24  •   Cornell (RHP Tim Willittes, 2-4, 6.31)   •   Penn (RHP Billy Lescher, 4-2, 3.97)

Cornell game notes (PDF)
Penn game notes (coming soon)

The Big Red, In Brief:
•   Cornell was swept by Dartmouth in a rare Wednesday Ivy doubleheader, 9-3 and 3-1, to close out a seven-game home stand. The Big Red skirted danger repeatedly in the opener and made the most of its three hits before the Big Green plated five in the seventh to blow the game open. Cornell then got a quality start from junior Tim Willittes in the finale, but could only scratch out one unearned run against four Dartmouth pitchers while stranding runners at third in the seventh and ninth innings.
•   Cornell won three of four games last weekend against Columbia in its first divisional series of the season. The Big Red came from behind in each victory, getting quality starts from juniors Paul Balestrieri and Peter Lannoo, and saves from juniors Rob Pannullo and Austin Wahl. Junior Cole Rutherford pounded 11 hits in the series to garner Ivy Co-Player of the Week honors, and freshman Mark Fraser was named Ivy Rookie of the Week on the heels of his six-game hitting streak.
•   In its first season under head coach Dan Pepicelli, Cornell will match its win total from 2015 with its next victory. Earlier this month, Cornell swept Harvard for the first time since 1995. The Big Red also posted six victories in March, including series victories at Wofford and Bucknell.
 
On Offense:
•   Junior Tommy Wagner leads the team and ranks third among Ivy League batters with a .358 average. He has reached base safely in 20 of his 22 games and he leads the league and ranks in the top 100 nationally with an average of 11.6 at-bats per strikeout.
•   Junior Cole Rutherford leads the squad with five home runs, two triples and 21 RBIs. His .554 slugging percentage leads Ivy hitters, and his .293 average is third on the team.
•   Sophomore Ellis Bitar ranks second on the team with a .323 average and leads the team with seven stolen bases. He's reached base safely in 23 of 26 games this year.
 
On The Mound:
•   Senior Michael Byrne (3-1, 3.30) leads the team in victories and earned-run average, despite seven of his last eight appearances coming in relief. He earned a no-decision in his start of Wednesday's first game with Dartmouth.
•   Junior Paul Balestrieri (2-4, 3.83, CG) anchors the Big Red's rotation and was named Ivy League Pitcher of the Week on April 5 after a gem against Harvard. Opposing batters are hitting just .223 off of him, which is the sixth-lowest mark in the league. Balestrieri has two quality starts in three Ivy League outings.
•   Junior Tim Willittes (2-4, 6.31) leads the pitching staff with 38 strikeouts and is a two-time Ivy League Pitcher of the Week. His eight starts are tied for the league lead.
•   Sophomore Justin Lewis (2-0, 4.28, 3 SV) is tied for the team lead with 10 relief appearances, though he is scheduled to start Sunday's first game. Lewis and Balestrieri are two of the three qualifying pitchers around the league to have not surrendered a home run yet this year.
 
Proceed With Caution:
•   Sophomore Ellis Bitar is the lone Ivy League catcher to appear on the 2016 Johnny Bench Award watch list. The award is given annually to the best catcher in Division I, and Bitar is certainly proving his wares by batting .323 and throwing out 10 prospective base-stealers, which is second-most among Ivy catchers. Interestingly enough, Johnny Bench once played at Cornell's Hoy Field as a member of the International League's Buffalo Bisons in an exhibition against the Big Red on May 25, 1967.
 
About Penn:
•   The Quakers won the finale of a four-game set last weekend at Princeton to stay within three games of the Tigers for the division lead. Penn scored just four runs over the first three games before using a late surge to win the fourth game, 5-2. The Quakers then won a non-league game on Tuesday against La Salle, 7-3.
•   Penn is batting .264 as a team, which leads the Ivy League. Senior Gary Tesch leads the team with a .355 average and 12 stolen bases. Junior Tim Graul is batting .310, leads the league with 14 doubles and is tied for the league lead with 23 RBIs. His five home runs are matched by seniors Ryan Mincher and Matt Greskoff. Freshman Matt O'Neill is batting .310 and leads Ivy catchers with 11 caught-stealings.
•   The pitching staff carries a 3.84 ERA into today's games, which is the best mark among Ivy schools. Junior LHP Gabe Kleiman (3-2, 2.25) is tied for the league lead in ERA. Opponents are batting just .224 off sophomore RHP Billy Lescher (4-2, 3.97). Freshman RHP Jake Nelson (1-1, 2.16, 5 SV) leads the league in saves. Senior RHP Mitch Holtz (0-1, 3.25) is tied for the league lead with 16 relief appearances.
•   Penn was 16-4 in Ivy League play in 2015 to set a program record for Ivy victories in a season, but the Quakers lost a one-game playoff with Columbia for the division title. Penn last won a Gehrig Division title in 2007 and last won the Ivy title in 1995.
 
Series History vs. Penn:
•   Penn is the most common opponent to the Big Red in program history, with this weekend's four games running the series tally to 276 games. The Quakers have won three of the four games in each of the last two seasons.
•   The first meeting between the teams was May 21, 1888, with the Quakers securing a 20-5 victory. The Big Red answered back the following day, winning 10-8.
•   While Penn has the series advantage, 151-119-2, Cornell has enjoyed success in the most recent meetings between the squads. In the last 50 meetings, the Big Red is 32-18 against the Quakers with just three series losses in the last 13 years.
 
Who's Hot:
•   Freshman Mark Fraser is settling in nicely as the Big Red's designated hitter with 11 hits over his last 10 games. He had a pair of doubles last weekend against Columbia, plus an opposite-field single which plated the go-ahead run in Sunday's first game.
•   Junior Cole Rutherford mashed 11 hits last weekend, including three doubles and his team-leading fifth home run of the season. He has 14 hits over the team's last 10 games, which is tied for the most on the team with sophomore Ellis Bitar.
 
The Route 96 Connection:
•   Two of the Big Red's top hitters are not only typically near each other in the batting order, they're also from the same town about a 90-minute drive northwest of campus. Junior Tommy Wagner (.358) and sophomore Dale Wickham (.282) both hail from Victor, near Rochester, where they played for a perennial high school power which captured the Class AA state title in 2014. The only other Upstate New York native on the team is senior pitcher Ryne Veenema (from the Rochester suburb of Fairport).
 
Gridiron Gang Saves The Day:
•   Juniors Rob Pannullo and Austin Wahl each earned their first collegiate saves last Sunday against Columbia, which is particularly noteworthy since both walked on to the baseball team this season after starting their Cornell athletic careers with other teams. Wahl was on the football team's roster his freshman year, and Pannullo is a two-time starting quarterback with the Big Red's sprint football team. Senior outfielder Marlon Rainville has also joining the baseball team after a stint with sprint football.
 
Power Surge:
•   It took the Big Red all 40 games of the 2015 season to hit six home runs, but it took just the day of March 12 to produce seven homers this season. Six of those blasts came in the second game of a doubleheader at Wofford, which set a single-game program record. Junior Cole Rutherford had two home runs in that game, plus one in the twin bill's opener. Cornell's 18 home runs are tied for second-most among Ivy League schools.
 
Byrne Notice:
•   Senior LHP Michael Byrne leads the team in wins and sports a 3.30 ERA through 10 appearances. He has done so by appearing primarily as a reliever, including four- and six-innings stints on April 2 vs. Harvard and April 10 at Yale, respectively. It's a return to form for Byrne, who garnered second-team Ivy League honors in both his freshman and sophomore seasons. Cornell has two other returning All-Ivy winners — both senior Jordan Winawer (2014) and junior Tommy Wagner (2015) have garnered honorable mention.
 
Up Next:
•   Cornell quickly transitions back to non-league play when it returns to its home state, venturing northwest for a 4 p.m. Tuesday doubleheader at Canisius. The Big Red then holds its Senior Day at noon Friday, April 29 when it hosts Princeton for a doubleheader to close out the home portion of its season.