ITHACA, N.Y. — The baseball team wraps up an eight-game home stand this weekend by returning to Ivy League play for a three-game series against Dartmouth at Hoy Field.

SERIES INFORMATION
Dartmouth at Cornell
SITE: Hoy Field — Ithaca, N.Y.
RECORDS: Cornell 5-14-1, 1-5 Ivy League;
                    Dartmouth 7-15-1, 3-2-1 Ivy League
SERIES RECORDS: Dartmouth leads, 94-80-1
VIDEO: IvyLeagueNetwork.com
STATS: CornellBigRed.com
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Probable starters
Game 1 • 11:30 a.m. Saturday, April 14
   Cornell (Willittes, RHP, 2-3, 5.06) • Dartmouth (O'Connor, RHP, 3-3, 4.10)
Game 2 • ~2:30 p.m. Saturday, April 14
   Cornell (Urbon, RHP, 0-2, 6.19) • Dartmouth (Chatham, RHP, 1-2, 6.06)
Game 3 • 1 p.m. Sunday, April 15
   Cornell (Fernandez, LHP, 0-3, 8.66) • Dartmouth (Fossand, RHP, 1-3, 5.85)

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

Big Red Rewind:
•   Cornell recorded its first tie in eight years Tuesday when a game against Binghamton was halted due to darkness with the teams tied, 5-5, in the middle of the 10th inning.
•   The last play of the game was an infield pop-up induced by Andrew Ellison, who escaped a bases-loaded jam in both the ninth and 10th innings. He also stranded both runners he inherited in the eighth inning.
•   Josh Arndt smashed a two-home run to right field in the second inning to extended his hit streak to 11 games, the team's longest of the season and the longest since Tommy Wagner '17 had hits in 13 straight from April 5-23, 2017.

Eye On The Ivy:
•   Cornell was swept by defending champion Yale in its last Ivy League games, also at Hoy Field. The Bulldogs' 7-4 victories on Saturday and Monday bookended a bizarre 8-7 win in 10 innings on Sunday.
•   Will Simoneit has eight hits over the Big Red's last four games, including the first two three-hit games of his career. The second was the series opener against Yale, in which Cornell scored three runs over the final two innings before the rally fell short.
•   The middle game of the set was delayed twice by quick bursts of snow and a few lead changes. Ellis Bitar was 3-for-5 with a double and an RBI single in the seventh inning that tied the score at 7. The Bulldogs pushed across the eventual winning run on a rare RBI strikeout. A runner from third scored when the Big Red threw to first base to complete a putout after a swinging third strike hit the turf.
•   All 20 hits in the series finale on Monday were singles. Cornell starter Tyler Fernandez was very effective through five innings, but ran into trouble in his third time through the Yale order. The Bulldogs pushed four runs across in the sixth to take control, including a two-run single from Dai Dai Otaka.

On Offense:
•   Cornell has scored 72 runs in last 11 (6.55 per game) after plating just 21 in its first nine (2.33 per game).
•   Senior Kyle Gallagher continues to pace the offense with a .329 average and an on base percentage of .500, which ranks 15th-highest in the country. He's drawn 24 walks in just 20 games, which gives him the second-highest walks per game ratio nationally (1.20). 
•   Senior Ellis Bitar leads the team with 15 runs scored and has reached base in 16 straight games, tied with senior leadoff man Ryan Krainz for the longest such streak for the Big Red this season.
•   Junior Will Simoneit is batting .351 over the last 10 games. He's also tied with sophomore Kaleb Lepper for the most stolen bases on the team with four. Simoneit and Bitar, the team's two catchers, have seven of the team's 23 stolen bases between them.
•   Senior Dale Wickham leads the team with 15 RBI and his .369 on base percentage ranks third on the team, aided by being hit with eight pitches this year. That's an average of 0.42 hit-by-pitches per game, 12th-highest in the country.

On The Mound:
•   Fifth-year senior Tim Willittes (2-3, 5.06) has rebounded from a tough start to the year, posting a 2-1 record, 3.00 ERA and 21 strikeouts over 27 innings in his last four starts. He returns to the rotation after being granted a medical redshirt by the Ivy League for missing the 2015 season.
•   Sophomore Seth Urbon (0-2, 6.19) has entered the rotation in his first year with the Big Red after transferring from Georgia Tech. He is the younger brother of former Cornell standout Kellon Urbon '15. 
•   Though a senior, Tyler Fernandez (0-3, 8.66) is making his collegiate debut this year after missing the last three years while rehabilitating injuries.
•   Sophomore Colby Wyatt (0-1, 3.78, 2 SV) leads the team with 11 relief appearances. He ranks third on the team with 21 strikeouts despite working just 16.2 innings.
•   Sophomore Andrew Ellison (1-3, 2.35) has yielded just two extra-base hits in 15.1 innings over seven appearances. He has stranded all six runners he's inherited.
•   Sophomore Jeb Bemiss (1-1, 6.85) leads the team in relief innings. He's surrendered just a pair of runs in his last 8.1 innings of work with one walks and seven strikeouts.

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 Dartmouth:
•   The Big Green is 7-15-1 and 3-2-1 in the Ivy League after taking two of three over the weekend against Columbia, then suffering a 12-8 loss to Mass.-Lowell on Tuesday.
•   Dartmouth sits atop the Ivy League with a .274 batting average, led by Sean Sullivan.  His .422 average ranks sixth in the nation and his on base percentage of .500 is 15th, but he has not played in the last three games after departing early in a game vs. Columbia.  
•   Dustin Shirley is batting .311 with a team-high seven doubles and 15 RBI. He is also one of the six batters with two home runs.
•   Cole O'Connor (3-3, 4.10) heads the rotation of a pitching staff that ranks first in the league in fewest walks per nine innings (3.34). Clay Chatham (1-2, 6.06) and Jack Fossand (1-3, 5.85) are tied for the team lead with 25 strikeouts.
•   Austen Michel (1-1, 4.30) leads the squad with nine appearances, has all three of the team's saves, and he has 22 strikeouts in 23 innings.

Series History vs. Dartmouth:
•   The Big Green has a 94-80-1 advantage in the programs' all-time meetings. Cornell has won eight of the last 15 meetings after the teams split a doubleheader last year in Hanover, N.H.
•   Tommy Morris tossed six shutout innings while issuing no walks and yielding just four hits, and Will Simoneit hit a solo home run in the Big Red's 2-0 victory to open last year's twin bill. Dartmouth responded with a 5-0 win in the night cap.

Up Next:
•   Cornell hits the road next weekend for a three-game Ivy League series at Penn, consisting of a doubleheader at 11:30 a.m. Saturday and a single game at 1 p.m. Sunday.