LEWISBURG, Pa. — The baseball team is scheduled to play its first four-game series of the season, traveling to the Keystone State for a pair of doubleheaders against Bucknell. There is no video or audio from the games at Depew Field, but live stats will run through the host school's website.

SERIES INFORMATION
Cornell at Bucknell
FORMAT: Seven innings in the first game; nine innings in the second game of both doubleheaders
SITE: Depew Field — Lewisburg, Pa.
RECORDS: Cornell 6-3, Bucknell 8-9
SERIES RECORD: Bucknell leads, 27-19-1
STATS: BucknellBison.com
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Probable starters
Game 1: Noon Saturday, March 25   •   Cornell (RHP Tim Willittes, 2-0, 4.41)   •   Bucknell (RHP Connor Van Hoose, 2-2, 2.96)
Game 2: ~2:30 p.m. Saturday, March 25  •   Cornell (LHP Justin Lewis, 0-1, 5.65)   •   Bucknell (LHP Jack Grabek, 1-2, 4.40)
Game 3: Noon Sunday, March 26   •   Cornell (RHP, Tommy Morris, 0-0, 0.00)   •   Bucknell (RHP Jeff Gottesman, 1-1, 2.74)
Game 4: ~2:30 p.m. Sunday, March 26  •   Cornell (RHP Paul Balestrieri, 3-0, 0.93)   •   Bucknell (LHP Mike Castellani, 0-1, 5.40)

Cornell game notes (PDF)

The Big Red, In Brief:
•   Cornell has taken two of three games in each of the first three weekends to its season, including victories over Campbell and Michigan State last weekend at the Spider Invitational in Richmond, Va.
•   The Big Red scored six runs in the first two innings in last weekend's opener against Richmond, but the Spiders hit back-to-back home runs in the ninth inning to force an extra frame, where they prevailed, 8-7, last Friday.
•   The tables turned the following day against Campbell, with Cornell scoring all of its runs in the eighth and ninth innings for a 3-2 victory. Senior Frankie Padulo drew a walk on a full count with the bases loaded to drive in the winning run.
•   Sophomore Josh Arndt hit a two-run double in the second inning, and senior starter Paul Balestrieri and senior relievers Matt Horton and Peter Lannoo made the lead stand up last Sunday in a 2-1 win over MIchigan State.

On Offense:
•   The Big Red bats have been strong in the early going, batting to a .294 clip through nine games. Three Cornellians are batting north of .400, led by junior Dale Wickham at .436. He also leads the team with 11 runs and seven doubles.
•   Junior infielders Trey Baur (.423) and Ryan Krainz (.419) are also among the team's top hitters. Krainz is in his first season with Cornell after transferring from junior college.
•   Senior Tommy Wagner (.268) has led the team in batting in each of the last two seasons and has hits in all nine Cornell games so far this year.
•   Senior Cole Rutherford hit the Big Red's first home run of the season in the series at George Mason. He led the squad with six home runs and 26 RBIs last year.
•   The Big Red has drawn 42 walks through nine games.
•   Cornell has made a habit of striking in early in games this season, having scored 21 runs in the first two innings of its nine games.

On The Mound:
•   Senior Paul Balestrieri (3-0, 0.93) is the reigning Ivy League Pitcher of the Week, after he worked into the eighth inning while surrendering just one run last Sunday against Michigan State.
•   Senior Tim Willittes (2-0, 4.41) has worked into the sixth inning in all three of his starts this year. He led the pitching staff with 40 strikeouts and two Ivy League Pitcher of the Week honors in 2016.
•   Junior Justin Lewis (0-1, 5.65) also had one of the Ivy League's best outings last weekend, working seven innings while surrendering two runs (one earned). He led last year's team in ERA (3.63) and saves (three), with 10 of his appearances in relief.
•   Senior Peter Lannoo (0-0, 5.87, 2 SV) leads the team with four relief outings, and he's tied for the team lead in saves with freshman Jeb Bemiss (0-1, 5.87, 2 SV). Senior Matt Horton and freshman John Natoli have each made three scoreless appearances.
•   Junior Tommy Morris is scheduled to make his Big Red debut with a Sunday start. He transferred to Cornell this season after pitching for two years at Kenyon College.

Making History:
•   Varsity baseball at Cornell started in 1869, so program firsts are few and far between two centuries later — but junior Dale Wickham delivered a big one last year. On May 1 at Princeton, Wickham became the first Big Red player to hit three home runs in a game. To make the feat even more impressive, he did it in his only three at-bats of a seven-inning game to open a doubleheader against the eventual Ivy League champion.

Proceed With Caution:
•   Junior Ellis Bitar has once again been named to the Johnny Bench Award watch list season after being the only Ivy League catcher to appear on the 2016 watch list. The award is given annually to the best catcher in Division I, and Bitar proved his wares last year by batting .288 and throwing out 14 prospective base-stealers — 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.

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. Senior Tommy Wagner and junior Dale Wickham both hail from Victor, near Rochester, where they played for a perennial high school power which captured the Class AA state title in 2014 (Wickham's senior year).

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. Cole Rutherford had two home runs in that game, plus one in the twin bill's opener. With two home runs today, Cornell would vault its season total to 25 and move into a tie for 10th-most in a single season in program history.

About Bucknell:
•   The Bison stand at 8-9 after a 10-inning 4-3 loss Tuesday at Penn State. The game followed a seven-game trip to Port Charlotte, Fla., where Bucknell went 4-3 with wins against Iowa, Northeastern and two of three against Massachusetts.
•   Danny Rafferty leads the team with a .344 batting average, seven doubles and 15 RBI. He has also drawn 14 walks against just four strikeouts.
•   Keifer Rawlings leads the squad with a .464 slugging percentage and has one of the team's three home runs to date. He ranks second with 12 RBI and is the only player on the team with singles, doubles, a triple and a home run.
•   Connor Van House (RHP, 2-2, 2.96) heads the rotation with a team-high 38 strikeouts in just 27.1 innings.

The Series History With Bucknell:
•   The Big Red is 19-27-1 all-time against the Bison, including three wins in a four-game series from March 18-20, 2016. Cornell won the opener in 11 innings, 8-6, before splitting a second-day doubleheader and outlasting the Bison in the finale, 3-2.
•  Bucknell won three of four games in its three previous series against Cornell (2006, 2007, 2015). The last 25 games of the series have been played at Bucknell, with the Bison's last visit to Ithaca coming in the form of the Big Red's doubleheader sweep on April 27, 1999.

Up Next:
•   Cornell's first midweek game is scheduled for Wednesday, when it visits Penn State at 6:30 p.m.
•   The Big Red will then commence the Ivy League season while simultaneously making its home debut. Cornell hosts a noon doubleheader against Brown on Saturday, April 1, then takes on Yale for a twin bill at noon Sunday, April 2.