COLLEGE STATION, Texas —  The baseball team opens the 2018 season with a three-game non-league series at Texas A&M, making its first trip to College Station in 44 years. It also marks the first time the Big Red has played a program currently in the Southeastern Conference since a 1991 trip to Auburn. The games will broadcast on SEC Network + on WatchESPN.

SERIES INFORMATION
Cornell at #10 Texas A&M
SITE: Blue Bell Park — College Station, Texas
RECORDS: Cornell 0-0, Texas A&M 4-0
SERIES RECORDS: Tied, 1-1
VIDEO: SEC Network + (Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3)
AUDIO: 12thMan.com
STATS: 12thMan.com (Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3)
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Probable starters
Game 1: 3 p.m. CST Friday, Feb. 23   •   Cornell (RHP Tommy Morris, 0-0, 0.00)   •   Texas A&M (RHP Stephen Kolek, 1-0, 0.00)
Game 2: 6 p.m. CST Friday, Feb. 23   •   Cornell (LHP Tyler Fernandez, 0-0, 0.00)   •   Texas A&M (LHP Chandler Jozwiak, 0-0, 9.00)
Game 3: 2 p.m. CST Saturday, Feb. 24   •   Cornell (RHP Tim Willittes, 0-0, 0.00)   •   Texas A&M (RHP Mitchell Kilkenny, 1-0, 2.84)

Cornell game notes (PDF)
Texas A&M game notes (coming soon)

How To Watch:
•   All of this weekend's games will be broadcast on SEC Network +, which is part of the ESPN family of networks. Outside of specific package subscribers, the streams of these games are available on ESPN3.com through log-ins from participating TV providers (i.e., Spectrum, DirecTV, Dish, Sling, etc.)

The Big Red, In Brief:
•   Cornell was 21-17 overall last season with a 9-11 record in the Ivy League, good for a third-place finish in the final year of the Ivy League's Lou Gehrig Division. It represented a seven-win improvement for the squad in its second year under the guidance of Dan Pepicelli, the Ted Thoren Head Coach of Baseball.
•   The Big Red roster is fairly balanced in terms of experience, with both 10 freshmen and 10 seniors among its roster of 35 players. Cornell returns seven of its top 10 starting bats and two starting pitchers from last year. 
•   In its second season while Pepicelli at the helm, Cornell recorded its first winning season since 2013 and just its fourth winning season since 1991. The Big Red also improved its Ivy League record by two victories over the year prior.
•   Associate Head Coach Tom Ford returns for his 26th season with the Big Red, while Frank Hager '12 remains assistant coach and recruiting coordinator in his third season on staff. David Anderson joins the Big Red as a volunteer assistant coach.
•   Senior Ryan Krainz (shortstop) and junior Will Simoneit (catcher) were named to the All-Ivy League teams in their debut seasons at the NCAA level. Krainz was named to the first team after transferring to Cornell from junior college, and Simoneit was placed on the second team after sitting out his freshman year while rehabilitating an injury.

On Offense:
•   The Big Red led the Ivy League with a .295 average — its best since 2009 and 42th-best in the country. Six of the returning batters hit .284 or better last year.
•   Senior Dale Wickham batted a gaudy .406 with 12 doubles in just 25 games, but he missed 13 games due to injury during the heart of the Ivy League schedule. Had he kept pace and had enough at-bats to qualify, he would have finished fourth in the nation in batting average.
•   Senior Ryan Krainz batted .369 with a team-high 28 walks against just 16 strikeouts as the team's primary lead-off hitter. The junior college transfer had a .478 on base percentage that ranked 16th in the country, and he also led the team with seven steals. He was just the program's second All-Ivy League first team selection in the last six years.
•   After sitting out his freshman year while rehabilitating an injury, junior Will Simoneit made quite a splash in his collegiate debut last year. He was named to the All-Ivy League second team after batting .317 with five home runs, 28 RBI and a team-best .610 slugging percentage in just 82 at-bats.

On The Mound:
•   The Big Red brings three seniors to its starting rotation, though none have thrown a pitch at Cornell in each of the last three seasons.
•   Fifth-year senior Tim Willittes (4-3, 6.12, 2 CG) returns after being granted a medical redshirt by the Ivy League after he missed the 2015 season. He has been a work horse ever since, making 18 starts over the last two seasons.
•   Though a senior, Tyler Fernandez is scheduled to be making his collegiate debut this weekend. He has missed the last three years rehabilitating injuries.
•   Senior Tommy Morris (2-2, 4.60) started all six of his appearances last season after joining the team via transfer from Division-III Kenyon.
•   In relief, Cornell returns a group of sophomores that saw plenty of action last year. Jeb Bemiss (13 app, 1-2, 4.76, 2 SV) ranked second on the team in saves and was tied for second in appearances. John Natoli (11 app, 0-0, 6.00, SV) and Colby Wyatt (8 app, 0-2, 13.00) also saw regular work, and junior Adam Saks (3 app, 0-0, 0.00) made 11 outings in 2016.

Making History:
•   Varsity baseball at Cornell started in 1869, so program firsts are few and far between two centuries later — but seniors Dale Wickham and Trey Baur have provided a couple over the last two years. 
•   On May 1, 2016, 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 at Princeton.
•   On April 5, 2017, Baur was at the forefront of Cornell's 27-14 lambasting of Towson. He was 6-for-7 with two doubles and a home run, becoming the first player in program history with six hits in a single game.

Proceed With Caution:
•   Senior Ellis Bitar is the only Ivy League catcher to have been named to the Johnny Bench Award watch list in each of the last two seasons. The award is given annually to the best catcher in Division I, and Bitar proved his wares last year by 
batting .286 and throwing out 23 prospective base-stealers against 32 stolen bases over the last two seasons. 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.

Gridiron Gang:
•   Cornell has two players on its roster who have also played for the football team in senior outfielder Kyle Gallagher and senior pitcher Austin Wahl. 
•   Gallagher became an everyday outfielder for the Big Red last season after playing five games at quarterback with the football team as a freshman. Wahl was a safety on the scout team in 2013, then walked on to the baseball team and made eight appearances in 2016. 

About Texas A&M:
•   The Aggies (4-0) enter the week ranked 10th in the country by D1Baseball.com after sweeping a three-game series vs. Rhode Island last weekend.  A 11-4 victory over Stephen F. Austin followed on Tuesday.
•   A&M has qualified for the NCAA tournament in 11 consecutive years and made its sixth College World Series appearance last year. The Aggies won the SEC tournament in 2016. 

Series History vs. Texas A&M: 
•   The teams have met just once before, splitting a doubleheader on April 10, 1974 in College Station. The Aggies won the first game, 14-2, before the Big Red countered with a 14-9 victory in the night cap.

Up Next: 
•   Cornell will continue its season-opening travels with a three-game series March 2-4 at Duke, then three games March 17-18 at Fordham.