PRINCETON, N.J. — The baseball team will get its first crack at Ivy League competition with a three-game series at Princeton. As will be the norm under the league's new division-less scheduling format, the teams are scheduled for a doubleheader on Saturday before a single game early Sunday afternoon.

SERIES INFORMATION
Cornell at Princeton
SITE: Clarke Field — Princeton, N.J.
RECORDS: Cornell 3-9, 0-0 Ivy; Princeton 3-10, 0-0 Ivy
SERIES RECORDS: Princeton leads, 148-97-2
VIDEO: IvyLeagueNetwork.com
STATS: GoPrincetonTigers.com
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Probable starters
Game 1 • 11:30 a.m. Saturday, March 31
   Cornell (Willittes, RHP, 1-2, 5.18) • Princeton (Gross, RHP, 1-2, 8.31)
Game 2 • ~2:30 p.m. Saturday, March 31
   Cornell (Urbon, RHP, 0-1, 5.73) • Princeton (Smith, LHP, 0-2, 5.27)
Game 3 • 1 p.m. Sunday, April 1
   Cornell (Fernandez, LHP, 0-2, 9.72) • Princeton (Proctor, RHP, 0-2, 6.92)

Cornell game notes (PDF)
Princeton game notes

Big Red Rewind:
• Cornell's offense has come alive to the tune of 31 runs and 34 hits over its last three games, leading to victories against Niagara and Penn State. The 31 runs account for 60% of the team's offense so far after the Big Red scored just 21 runs in its first nine games.
• Cornell defeated Penn State, 10-6, on Wednesday for just the program's second victory in 25 visits to the Nittany Lions' home facility. Kalani Matton hit his first collegiate home run in the second inning, and the Big Red never trailed in a back-and-forth affair that was halted for good in the eighth inning due to thickening fog in Happy Valley.
• The Big Red opened its home slate Sunday with a doubleheader split against Niagara at Hoy Field.
• Dale Wickham drove in five runs in the opener, and Kyle Gallagher was 4-for-4 with four RBI in a 17-5 rout. Tim Willittes turned in second straight start of seven innings while yielding just one earned run. He induced 10 groundouts while fanning five.
• Niagara bounced back with a three-run first inning in the night cap and staved off the hosts the rest of the way to win, 7-4. The Purple Eagles got the final two outs of the game to strand the bases loaded.

The Long Road:
• The Big Red started the season with a pair of challenging series on the road against Texas A&M and Duke. While Cornell was swept in both sets, the season opener against the Aggies was a one-run game, 3-2.
• Before finally debuting at home on Sunday, the Big Red also played three games Match 17-18 at Fordham. Cornell's first victory came in the second game after a ninth-inning rally to send the game to an extra inning and the go-ahead run in the 10th.

On Offense:
• Though the Big Red is batting .218 for the season, it's also trending in the right direction with a .282 average over six games against Fordham, Niagara and Penn State. Cornell boasts six batters with an average of at least .313 over that stretch.
• Senior Kyle Gallagher continues his torrid start to the season with a .381 average and .527 on base percentage, thanks to a team-high 13 walks against just nine strikeouts.
• The top of the order has started to heat up with senior Ryan Krainz providing 11 hits over the last six games to raise his average to .300 for the season. He enters this weekend on an eight-game hitting streak and has reached base in 10 straight.
• Senior Ellis Bitar, who typically bats one spot behind Krainz in the order, has also raised his average to .293. He leads the team with 11 runs scored in 11 games.
• Senior Dale Wickham has taken over the team lead in RBI with 10 after driving in eight runs over the last three games. Wickham sported a .406 average last year, which would have been fourth-best in the nation if he had enough at-bats to qualify. He missed 13 games in the heart of the Ivy League slate due to injury.
• The Big Red led the Ivy League last year 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.

On The Mound:
• In each of his last two starts, fifth-year senior Tim Willittes (1-2, 5.18) has yielded just one earned run while working at least seven innings. He returns to the rotation after being granted a medical redshirt by the Ivy League after missing the 2015 season.
• Sophomore Seth Urbon (0-1, 5.73) has entered the rotation in his first year with the Big Red after transferring from Georgia Tech. The younger brother of former Cornell standout Kellon Urbon '15, he has 13 strikeouts over his last two starts — both no-decisions.
• Though a senior, Tyler Fernandez (0-2, 9.72) is making his collegiate debut this year. He missed the last three years rehabilitating injuries.
• Sophomores Colby Wyatt (0-1, 2.89) and Andrew Ellison (1-1, 3.68) have emerged as two of the team's top bullpen arms in the early going. Wyatt has 13 strikeouts in just 9.1 innings and earned his first collegiate save Wednesday at Penn State. Ellison earned his victory in 3.2 innings of scoreless relief last Saturday at Fordham.

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.

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 Princeton:
• After having each of its previous five games either cancelled or postponed, the Tigers finally got back to action Wednesday with a 6-5 victory at Rutgers to improve to 3-10.
• The Tigers are batting .249, with Joseph Flynn leading the way at .373 with a team-high three home runs and 14 RBI. Sy Snedeker is batting .270 with four doubles.
• While hitting just .226 this year, Jesper Horsted owns a .292 career average. The toolsy outfielder and draft prospect this year was a unanimous first-team All-Ivy selection in football this fall, having broken a Princeton single-season record with 92 receptions.
• Princeton's pitching staff has a 5.91 ERA through 13 games. LHP Ryan Smith (0-2, 5.27) has moved to the rotation after making 21 relief appearances with five saves in 2017.
• Eli Kimbell (0-0, 2.70) worked three scoreless innings to record his second save of the season on Wednesday at Rutgers.

Series History vs. Princeton:
• The Tigers are the second-most frequent opponent for the Big Red in program history, with this weekend's three games pushing the total number of meetings between the squads to 250.
• The teams split last year's four-game series, with each squad winning its home doubleheader — April 28 at Princeton and April 30 at Cornell.
• This year marks the first time since 2004 that the Big Red won't be concluding its Ivy League schedule against the Tigers, which are a former Gehrig Division rival.

Up Next:
• Cornell hits the road again for a Tuesday twin bill at 3 p.m. against Canisius in Buffalo before returning to Hoy Field for a seven-game home stand that starts with a three-game series April 7-8 against Yale