ITHACA, N.Y. — Coming off a record-setting performance its last time out, the baseball team will head back to Ivy League play this weekend with a pair of interdivisional doubleheaders at Harvard and Dartmouth. All four games will be broadcast on the Ivy League Digital Network.

WEEKEND INFORMATION
Cornell at Harvard / Dartmouth (doubleheaders)
FORMAT: Seven innings in the first game; nine innings in the second game of both doubleheaders
SITES: O'Donnell Field — Cambridge, Mass. (Saturday); Red Rolfe Field — Hanover, N.H. (Sunday)
RECORDS: Cornell 11-9, 1-3 Ivy League; Harvard 11-12, 0-4; Dartmouth 13-8, 3-1
SERIES RECORDS: Harvard leads Cornell, 104-50; Dartmouth leads Cornell, 93-71-1
VIDEO: Ivy League Digital Network
STATS: Harvard: Game 1 / Game 2   •   Dartmouth: Game 1 / Game 2
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Probable starters
Game 1 on Saturday, April 8 (Noon)   •   Cornell (RHP Tim Willittes, 3-1, 4.28)   •   Harvard (RHP Ian Miller, 1-3, 2.92)
Game 2 on Saturday, April 8 (~2:30 p.m.)  •   Cornell (LHP Justin Lewis, 0-2, 5.75)   •   Harvard (RHP Noak Zavolas, 2-3, 4.32)
Game 1 on Sunday, April 9 (Noon)   •   Cornell (RHP Tommy Morris, 0-1, 7.71)   •   Dartmouth (RHP Beau Sulser, 3-0, 1.59)
Game 2 on Sunday, April 9 (~2:30 p.m.)   •   Cornell (RHP Paul Balestrieri, 4-1, 1.62)   •   Dartmouth (RHP Jack Fossand, 0-1, 7.07)

Cornell game notes (PDF)
Harvard game notes
Dartmouth game notes (PDF)

The Big Red, In Brief:
•   Cornell arrives in New England after a quick two-game swing through Maryland, capped by a 27-14 thrashing of Towson on Wednesday. It broke a 37-year-old modern-era record for runs in a game, and Trey Baur set a record for hits in a game with six.
•   Baur also drove in five runs, as did Tommy Wagner and Will Simoneit with the help of the Big Red's first grand slams since 2014. Cornell is now tabbed 121st in the Ratings Percentage Index.
•   The Big Red's other non-league game this week was a 3-1 loss to Georgetown on Tuesday. Cole Rutherford was 2-for-4 with a double and Cornell's lone run.
•   Cornell was 1-3 in its first weekend of Ivy League play, suffered a pair of losses to Brown on Saturday before splitting Sunday's doubleheader against defending Red Rolfe Division champion Yale.
•   Starting staff anchor Paul Balestrieri battled through seven innings to earn the win against the Bulldogs. Matt Horton then worked his seventh straight scoreless outing to hand the game off to closer Peter Lannoo, who notched his third save of the year.
•   The win against Yale ended a five-game losing streak for the Big Red. Cornell suffered an 8-2 loss to Penn State last Wednesday in its first midweek game of the season.

On Offense:
•   The Big Red bats are hitting at a .285 clip through 20 games. After going 6-for-7 against Towson on Wednesday, junior Trey Baur joins classmate Dale Wickham with a .383 average. Wickham ranks third in the nation with an average of 0.60 doubles per game, and his1.55 hits per game ranks 49th. Baur's .493 on base percentage ranks 36th nationally, and he enters the weekend on a seven-game hitting streak.
•   Junior Ryan Krainz has a .358 average with a .470 on base percentage and team-high five stolen bases. Having worked 15 walks against just five strikeouts, Krainz moved up to the leadoff role last weekend.
•   Senior Cole Rutherford (.313) leads the team with four home runs and 20 RBIs. He also led the Big Red in those categories last year with six home runs and 26 RBIs. He is the older brother of Blake Rutherford, a 2017 first-round draft pick of the New York Yankees.
•   Senior Tommy Wagner 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.

On The Mound:
•   Senior Paul Balestrieri (4-1, 1.62) has been the Big Red's ace, having won Ivy League Pitcher of the Week on March 20 after working into the eighth while surrendering just one run against Michigan State. He ranks in the nation's top 50 in both ERA (40th) and WHIP (0.90; 34th).
•   Senior Tim Willittes (3-1, 4.45) tossed his first career complete game in late March at Bucknell. He led the pitching staff with 40 strikeouts and two Ivy League Pitcher of the Week honors in 2016.
•   Juniors Justin Lewis (0-2, 6.75) and Tommy Morris (0-1, 7.71) are also scheduled to start this weekend. Lewis led last year's team in ERA (3.63) and saves (three), with 10 of his appearances in relief. Morris joined the team this year via transfer from Kenyon.
•   Senior Peter Lannoo (0-0, 5.40, 3 SV) leads the team with eight relief outings, the last coming on Sunday when he closed out the Big Red's victory over Yale.
•   Not only has senior Matt Horton (1-0, 0.00) made seven scoreless relief appearances, he hasn't allowed any of his six inherited runners to score either. Over his career with the Big Red, he's allowed just five of 31 inherited runners to score.

About Harvard:
•   The Crimson is 11-12 after defeating Massachusetts, 7-3, on Wednesday in a Beanpot semifinal in Cambridge. Harvard scored five runs in the third inning to take control in its home debut. Harvard was tabbed 187th in the Ratings Percentage Index as of Thursday.
•   Harvard was swept last weekend in its first four Ivy League games, dropping doubleheaders on the road to both Columbia (2-0, 5-1) and Penn (4-0, 7-4).
•   The offense is batting .255, with Patrick Robinson leading the way with a .406 average and a team-high eight doubles. Matt Rothenberg (.340) and Patrick McColl (.339) are also batting above .300, and Matt Hink leads the team with three home runs in just 30 at-bats.
•   Ian Miller (RHP, 1-3, 2.92) is scheduled to start the opener, with each of his five starts to date lasting at least six innings. His win came in his season debut on March 5 vs. Lafayette, when he tossed a one-hit, nine-inning shutout. Noah Zavolas (RHP, 2-3, 4.32) is slated to start Saturday's second game, coming off a loss to Columbia.
•   Garrett Rupp (RHP, 0-0, 6.91, SV) and Kieran Shaw (RHP, 0-0, 4.91, SV) are the team's most frequently used relievers and account for the team's lone two saves to date. The team's pitching staff has a 4.85 ERA.

Series History vs. Harvard:
•   Harvard holds a 104-50 lead in the all-time series, but its been a lot more even of late with Cornell sweeping last year's doubleheader and the teams splitting their annual two-game series in each of the six seasons prior.
•   Paul Balestrieri tossed a complete game in a 5-1 victory in last year's opener, then Justin Lewis worked three innings of scoreless relief to set the stage for the Big Red's rally in a 6-4 win to cap the day. Cole Rutherford drove in the winning runs in both games. Ellis Bitar was 2-for-4 with a double in the second game.
•   Cornell has not swept a doubleheader at Harvard since April 9, 1995.

About Dartmouth:
•   The Big Green is coming off a 5-2 loss Wednesday at Holy Cross, with Kyle Holbrook's two-run homer in the ninth plating the team's runs. As of Thursday, Dartmouth was tabbed 68th in the Ratings Percentage Index — highest among Ivy League teams.
•   The offense is batting .300, with Matt Feinstein leading at .375. Michael Ketchmark (.350), Trevor Johnson (.329) and Kyle Holbrook (.314) have three home runs apiece. Johnson also has a team-high 11 stolen bases and Holbrook leads with 19 RBI.
•   Beau Sulser (RHP, 3-0, 1.59) is slated to start Sunday's opener and make just his fourth appearance of the season. He has 23 strikeouts in just 17 innings of work. Jack Fossand (RHP, 0-1, 7.07) is lined up the second game, with all of his outings to date lasting between three and four innings.
•   Marc Bachman (LHP, 0-0, 2.25) leads the team with 11 relief appearances, and Chris Burkholder (RHP, 0-0, 1.69, 6 SV) serves as Dartmouth's primary closer of choice. The team's pitching staff has a 4.15 ERA and has issued just 56 walks through 182 innings.

The Series History With Dartmouth:
•   The Big Green has a 93-71-1 advantage in the programs' all-time meetings. While Cornell has won seven of the last 13 meetings, Dartmouth swept last year's doubleheader in a rare rescheduled Wednesday matinee.
•   Dartmouth won last year's first game, 9-3. Even though the Big Green sprayed 13 hits against just three from Cornell, neither side led by more than a run until the Big Green's five-run seventh. Tim Willittes turned in a quality start in the night cap, allowing three runs through six innings, but Dartmouth won, 3-1.
•   Of particular note in the teams' recent history is the Big Red's win over the Big Green in the 2012 Ivy League Championship series, capped in the 11th inning of Game 3 on a walk-off home run by Chris Cruz '14. Earlier that season, Connor Kaufmann '14 tossed a no-hitter against Dartmouth.

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.

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 returns home from its lengthy trip and hosts Binghamton in a single non-league game at 4 p.m. Wednesday at Hoy Field. The Big Red then heads right back on the road for its first Lou Gehrig Division series of the season, playing Columbia in a pair of doubleheaders on April 15-16 in New York.