ITHACA, N.Y. — The long wait for the Ivy League baseball season is over, with Cornell scheduled to host Brown and Yale in a pair of weekend doubleheaders to commence interdivisional play. The first game of both twin bills is scheduled for seven innings, while the night cap is slated for nine innings. All four games will be broadcast on the Ivy League Digital Network.

WEEKEND INFORMATION
Brown / Yale at Cornell (doubleheaders)
FORMAT: Seven innings in the first game; nine innings in the second game of both doubleheaders
SITE: Hoy Field — Ithaca, N.Y.
RECORDS: Cornell 9-5, Brown 6-8, Yale 9-10
SERIES RECORD: Brown leads Cornell, 60-59-2; Yale leads Cornell, 103-72
VIDEO: Ivy League Digital Network
STATS: CornellBigRed.com
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Probable starters
Game 1 on Saturday, March 25 (Noon)   •   Brown (RHP Christian Taugner, 2-1, 2.77)   •   Cornell (RHP Tim Willittes, 3-0, 3.47)
Game 2 on Saturday, March 25 (~2:30 p.m.)  •   Brown (RHP Reid Anderson, 0-1, 4.84)   •   Cornell (LHP Justin Lewis, 0-1, 5.65)
Game 1 on Sunday, March 26 (Noon)   •   Yale (RHP Scott Politz, 4-1, 4.33)   •   Cornell (RHP Tommy Morris, 0-0, 6.75)
Game 2 on Sunday, March 26 (~2:30 p.m.)   •   Yale (RHP Mason Kukowski, 1-0, 2.55)   •   Cornell (RHP Paul Balestrieri, 3-1, 1.03)

Cornell game notes (PDF)

The Big Red, In Brief:
•   Cornell is coming off an 8-2 loss Wednesday at Penn State in its first midweek action of the season.
•   The Big Red scored both of its runs in the seventh inning to cut its deficit to two runs, fueled by Cole Rutherford's double and junior Trey Baur's single to lead off the frame. Cornell used seven pitchers, with Colby Wyatt yielding just an unearned run in a three-inning start to mark his second collegiate appearance.
•   Cornell has won its first three series of the season, as well as two of three games at Richmond's Spider Invitational three weeks ago. As of Thursday, the Big Red is the Ivy League's top team with a standing of 56th in the Ratings Percentage Index.
•   The Big Red took three of four games last weekend at Bucknell. Cornell swept the Saturday doubleheader against the Bison, 5-2 and 11-4, with Cole Rutherford hitting home runs in each game. The Big Red then took the opener of Sunday's twin bill, 7-3, before Bucknell scratched out a 1-0 win in the series finale.
•   Cornell has also won two of three in series against Navy and George Mason, plus it defeated Campbell and Michigan State after falling to Richmond at the Spider Invitational.

On Offense:
•   The Big Red bats have been strong in the early going, batting to a .283 clip through 14 games. Junior Dale Wickham leads the team with a .407 average, his 0.64 doubles per game ranks second in the nation and his 1.71 hits per game ranks 12th.
•   Batting exclusively from the 9 hole, junior Ryan Krainz has a .404 average with a team-leading .491 on base percentage.
•   Senior Tommy Wagner (.237) started the season on a 12-game hitting streak, which is the Big Red's longest since Spenser Souza during the 2013 season. Wagner has led the team in batting in each of the last two seasons.
•   Senior Cole Rutherford (.286) has three of Cornell's five home runs this season and team-high 15 RBIs. He led the squad with six home runs and 26 RBIs last year.

On The Mound:
•   Senior Paul Balestrieri (3-1, 1.03) won Ivy League Pitcher of the Week on March 20 after working into the eighth while surrendering just one run against Michigan State. His ERA ranks 17th nationally among qualifying pitchers.
•   Senior Tim Willittes (3-0, 3.47) tossed his first career complete game in his last outing against Bucknell. 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) was stellar in his last outing March 18 vs. Campbell, 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, 6.52, 2 SV) leads the team with six relief outings, and he's tied for the team lead in saves with freshman Jeb Bemiss (1-1, 4.50, 2 SV).
•   Not only has senior Matt Horton (1-0, 0.00) made five scoreless relief appearances, he hasn't allowed any of his six inherited runners to score either.

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 Ivy League champion.

About Brown:
•   The Bears fell to 6-8 after a 7-2 loss to Bryant on Wednesday. Brown started the years with six straight losses, followed by six straight wins before dropping Sunday's season finale against Georgetown. Brown is currently 247th in the Ratings Percentage Index.
•   The offense is batting .252, with Sam Grigo leading the team at .310. Garett Delano is batting .296 with three of the team's six home runs. Josh Huntley has two home runs and a team-best 10 RBI while batting .283.
•   Christian Taugner (RHP, 2-1, 2.77) and Reid Anderson (RHP, 0-1, 4.84) are slated to start against the Big Red — the same duo that started in last year's games between the squads. The team's pitching staff has a 3.73 ERA.
•   Samuel Hauser (RHP, 0-0, 0.00) hasn't allowed a run in seven relief outings, which is tied for the team lead with Will Tomlinson (RHP, 0-0, 4.50). The Bears have yet to use a left-handed pitcher this season.

The Series History With Brown:
•   The Bears swept last season's doubleheader in Rhode Island to take back the series lead at 60-59-2. Cornell had won eight of its nine previous games against Brown. •   The teams split the last doubleheader at Hoy Field in 2015, with Frankie Padulo swatting four hits of the two games.
•   Cornell's first victory against Brown came all the way back on May 7, 1912.

About Yale:
•   The Bulldogs have won six of their last seven games to improve to 9-10, most recently outlasting Hartford for a 13-11 victory on Wednesday. Brian Ronai hit a two-run homer in the ninth. Yale enters the weekend 166th in the Ratings Percentage Index.
•   The offense is batting .272, with Tim DeGraw leading with a .313 average and eight stolen bases. His 16 RBI is second on the team behind Griffin Dey (.234), who also has six of the team's 17 home runs.
•   Sophomore Scott Politz (RHP, 4-1, 4.33), an All-Ivy League first team selection last year, is slated to start Sunday's first game. He's thrown at least six innings in each of his starts and has 32 strikeouts through 35.1 innings.
•   Junior Mason Kukowski (RHP, 1-0,  2.55) is scheduled to start Sunday's second game. He yielded just two hits in eight scoreless innings against Holy Cross in his last start.
•   Sophomore Griffin Dey (RHP, 2-0, 5.68, SV) leads the team with eight relief appearances, and sophomore Kumar Nambiar (LHP, 1-1, 9.90) has come out of the bullpen seven times. The team's pitching staff has a 6.95 ERA.

The Series History With Yale:
•   Yale holds a 103-72 lead in the all-time series, including a pair of extra-inning wins to sweep last year's doubleheader. Prior to that, Cornell had won six of the last eight meetings between the squads.
•   The Big Red swept the Bulldogs' last visit to Hoy Field, 10-1 and 7-5, on March 29, 2015. Tommy Wagner had four hits and four RBI over the two games, and Paul Balestrieri closed out the second game for his third save of that season.
•   The first meeting between the teams came in 1887.

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).

Up Next:
•   Cornell heads back to the Mid-Atlantic region for a pair of midweek games, visiting Georgetown at 3 p.m. Tuesday and Towson at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday before heading into New England for Ivy League doubleheaders over the weekend at Harvard and Dartmouth.