BUFFALO, N.Y. — The baseball team heads northwest for the first time this season when it visits Canisius for a doubleheader starting at 3 p.m. Tuesday. The games will be the Big Red's first outside of Ivy League play since an April 13 win over Binghamton.
 
GAME INFORMATION
Cornell at Canisius
FORMAT: Two seven-inning games
TIME: 3 p.m. Tuesday, April 26; Game 2 starts approximately 30 minutes after conclusion of Game 1
SITE: Demske Sports Complex — Buffalo, N.Y
RECORDS: Cornell 13-19, 6-10 Ivy; Canisius 21-18, 11-4 MAAC
SERIES RECORDS: Cornell leads Canisius, 11-4
VIDEO: None
STATS: www.GoGriffs.com
 
Cornell game notes (PDF)

The Big Red, In Brief:
•   Cornell lost three of four games last weekend against Penn in a pivotal Lou Gehrig Division series at Meiklejohn Stadium, though the Big Red is still mathematically alive in the title chase. The Quakers secured lopsided victories in the first and last games of the weekend, with Cornell rallying for four runs in the eighth innings to earn a 7-4 victory in Saturday's second game. Sunday's opener went to extras behind terrific outings from sophomore starter Justin Lewis and junior reliever Rob Pannullo, then the Big Red took the lead in the top of the 10th. But Penn stormed back and eventually won, 3-2, on a walk-off hit-by-pitch with the bases loaded.
•   With just four games left in the league season, it is still possible that all eight Ivy League teams finish with 10-10 records in league play. In order for Cornell to advance to the league's championship series, it would need to win four-playoff for the division created by a four-game sweep of Princeton this weekend and Columbia winning three of four games against Penn.
•   In its first season under head coach Dan Pepicelli, Cornell has already matched its win total from 2015 with seven games remaining this season. 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. Wagner, however, has missed the last 10 games due to injury.
•   Junior Cole Rutherford leads the squad with six home runs and 24 RBIs, and his two triples are tied for the team lead with sophomore Dale Wickham. Rutherford's .546 slugging percentage is second among Ivy hitters, and his .287 average is third on the team.
•   Sophomore Ellis Bitar ranks second on the team with a .297 average and leads the team with seven stolen bases. He's reached base safely in 26 of 30 games this year.
 
On The Mound:
•   Sophomore Justin Lewis (2-0, 3.78, 3 SV) has taken over the team ERA lead among qualifiers after a quality start Sunday vs. Penn (6 IP, ND). The lone run Lewis surrendered against the Quakers came on the first home run against him this season.
•   Senior Michael Byrne (3-2, 3.90) and junior Peter Lannoo (3-2, 5.40) are tied for team lead in victories, though they've arrived there through drastically different paths. Byrne started the season in the rotation but has made seven of his last appearances in relief. As a reliever, his ERA is 2.05. Conversely, Lannoo started the year with three relief appearances and has since made six straight starts — four in which he's worked into at least the seventh inning.
•   Junior Tim Willittes (2-5, 7.23) leads the pitching staff with 39 strikeouts and is a two-time Ivy League Pitcher of the Week. His nine starts are tied for the league lead.
•   Junior Jamie Flynn (0-0, 7.63) leads the team with 12 relief appearances. Junior Scott Soltis (0-4, 12.66) and freshman Adam Saks (0-0, 7.62) and Lewis have each made 10.
 
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 .297 and throwing out 12 prospective base-stealers, which is the 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 Canisius:
•   The Golden Griffins swept a three-game weekend series against Iona and sit a half game behind Fairfield in the MAAC standings with an 11-4 conference record. Canisius is riding a  six-game winning streak to improve to 21-18 overall. Cornell is the only Ivy League opponent on the Griffs' schedule.
•   Ithaca HS gradaute Anthony Massicci, a senior middle infielder, leads the team with a .318 average. He leads the squad outright with a .457 slugging percentage and 16 stolen bases, and he's tied for the team lead in triples (2), home runs (2) and runs (31). Canisius' .247 team batting average matches that of the Big Red.
•   Canisius figures to roll out a lot of pitchers today, having a history of keeping arms on short leashes outside of ace Josh Shepley (2-4, 4.47) and Nolan Hunt (3-0, 2.75). Zachary Sloan (0-0, 0.00) has most recently been the team's other weekend starter. Iannick Remillard (1-1, 2.86) has 11 saves this season and set a program record with his 23rd career save over the weekend. The pitching staff carries a 3.83 ERA into today's games,
 
Series History vs. Canisius:
•   The Big Red holds a big 11-4 advantage in the all-time series, though the teams split a doubleheader last year. Juniors Frankie Padulo and Tommy Wagner had the only two Cornell hits in a 6-1 loss in the April 29, 2015 opener, then Matt Hall '15 hit a walk-off two-run double to cap the Big Red's 4-3 win in the night cap to end the season.
•   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 nine victories over Canisius.
 
Who's Hot:
•   Junior Cole Rutherford has a monster 16 hits over his last 10 games, including a pair of home runs and nine RBIs.
•   Freshman Josh Arndt led the Big Red with seven hits in the team's six games last week. He had his first career multi-hit game by going 3-for-3 with two doubles, two RBIs and a stolen base in Saturday's second game against Penn, then followed that up by recording two more hits in Sunday's opener.
 
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 April 17 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.
 
Up Next:
•   Cornell will hold its Senior Day at noon Friday, April 29 when it hosts Princeton for a doubleheader at Hoy Field to close out the home portion of its season. There will be a pregame ceremony to honor the Big Red's seniors; Michael Byrne, Eliot Lowell, Collin McGee, Marlon Rainville, Ryne Veenema and Jordan Winawer. The Big Red then plays two more against the Tigers at noon Sunday at Princeton, then closes its regular season Wednesday, May 4 at Binghamton.