ITHACA, N.Y. —  The baseball team makes the short jaunt to the southeast for its second non-league game of the season against Binghamton at the Bearcats' Baseball Complex in Vestal.

GAME INFORMATION
Binghamton at Cornell
6:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 24
SITE: Baseball Complex — Vestal, N.Y.
RECORDS: Cornell 8-17-1, Binghamton 10-22-1
SERIES RECORDS: Cornell leads, 22-15-1
VIDEO: www.BUbearcats.com
STATS: www.BUbearcats.com
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Probable starters
Cornell (RHP Adam Saks, 0-0, 5.73)  •   Binghamton (RHP Jake Miller, 2-0, 4.26)

Cornell game notes (PDF)
Binghamton game notes (coming soon)

The Big Red, In Brief:
•   Cornell is coming off its first Ivy League series victory of the season, taking the first and last of a three-game set against Penn at Meiklejohn Stadium in Philadelphia. Both Big Red victories were of the one-run variety with sophomore Andrew Ellison closing it out — once for his first collegiate save, then later for the victory.
•   The Big Red offense has warmed up, scoring 107 runs in its last 17 (6.29 per game) after plating just 21 runs in its first nine (2.33 per game).
•   Entering Monday's games around the country, Cornell remained 246th in the Ratings Percentage Index — which is fourth-highest among the eight teams in the Ivy League. 

Penn Series Redux:
•   The wild series started with a Cornell blitz of Penn's ace, then a bend-but-don't-break finale to a 10-9 victory in Saturday's opener. Ellis Bitar was 4-for-5 with a double and two home runs and the program's first six-RBI game in more than 11 years.
•   After being thrown a fourth ball but not awarded a walk (also leading to a caught stealing of a bewildered baserunner), Josh Arndt cranked the next pitch over the wall for a two-run homer to extend the Big Red's lead to 10-3 after six innings. Cornell ended up needing every inch of the cushion with Penn plating six before the first out of the home side's ninth inning. Ellison then closed it out with the potential winning run on base.
•   The Big Red battled back in Saturday's night cap, with Dale Wickham's two-run homer capping a four-run seventh to tie the score at 5. But Penn plated four more in the eighth to pull away for a 9-5 win and turn the series finale into a rubber game.
•   Cornell once again showed resilience Sunday, erasing a five-run deficit after six innings. Wickham's three-run jack in the seventh was his fourth straight game with a home run, bringing the Big Red back to within 5-4.
•   Ryan Krainz drove in the tying run in the eighth on a safety squeeze that was executed so well that it turned into an infield single. Kyle Gallagher pulled the next pitch into left to drive in the go-ahead run with Krainz moving up to third when the defense failed to call for time toward the end of play. That allowed Krainz to score what boiled down to the winning run on Wickham's sacrifice fly. Ellison pitched the final three innings to earn the win.

On Offense:
•   Senior Dale Wickham is on a tear with 12 hits over his last five games, raising his average more than 100 points in just nine days to lead the team at .298. With home runs in four straight games, he also leads the team with five home runs and 25 RBI. 
•   Senior Kyle Gallagher bats .292 and leads the team with a .447 on base percentage, which ranks third in the Ivy League. He's drawn 27 walks in just 26 games, which gives him the sixth-highest walks per game rate nationally (1.04). Gallagher and junior Josh Arndt are tied for the team lead in doubles with seven.
•   Senior Ellis Bitar has boosted his average up to .286 with three of his four home runs on the season coming in last weekend's series at Penn. Also ranking second on the team in RBI (22) and slugging percentage (.490), Bitar enters the game against Binghamton on a streak of reaching base in 22 consecutive games. It's the team's longest such stretch since senior Ryan Krainz reached in 23 straight to close out the 2017 season.
•   Cornell now leads the Ivy League with 32 stolen bases, having swiped 13 bases on 16 attempts over the last 10 games. Krainz and junior Will Simoneit are tied for the team lead with five, but the thievery is more of a team effort with seven different players having between three and five stolen bases so far.

On The Mound:
•   Seniors Tim Willittes and Tommy Morris, and sophomore Seth Urbon started games in the Penn series, thus are unlikely to appear in the game vs. Binghamton.
•   Junior Adam Saks (0-0, 5.73) is scheduled to start against the Bearcats. In his only other start this year, he tossed two scoreless innings in a victory over Canisius on April 4.
•   Sophomore Colby Wyatt (0-1, 3.54, 2 SV) leads the team with 15 relief appearances. He ranks third on the team with 24 strikeouts despite working just 20.1 innings.
•   Sophomore Andrew Ellison (2-3, 2.11, 1 SV) has yielded just three extra-base hits in 21.1 innings over 11 appearances. He has stranded all nine runners he's inherited with the opposition batting just 4-for-40 against him with runners on base.
•   Cornell freshman pitchers have yet to allow a run this year, though they have only accounted for 2.2 innings over five outings this year. Garrett Bailey, Nicholas Binnie and Trevor Daniel Davis are behind that effort, with Binnie earning a victory in his first collegiate outing April 4 vs. Canisius.

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. He returned to the team this year and has made nine appearances so far.

About Binghamton:
•   The Bearcats have lost seven of their last eight to fall to 10-22-1. The lone win in that stretch was the middle game of a three-game America East series last weekend vs. Albany.
•   Binghamton is batting .240, led by Anthony Meduri's .322 average. Luke Tevlin ranks second with a .288 average, and Jason Agresti bats .284 with a team-high 11 doubles. Paul Rufo is the leader with 20 RBI and joins Pat Britt and C.J. Krowiak with a team-high three home runs. Krowiak's six stolen bases lead the team.
•   Nick Wegmann, Nick Gallagher and Jacob Wloczewski are Binghamton's weekend starters, thus they are unlikely to pitch much against Cornell.   
•   Right-hander Jake Miller (2-0, 4.26) is scheduled to make his first start of the season. 
•   Ben Anderson (0-2, 1.93) leads the team with 11 relief appearances.

Series History vs. Binghamton: 
•   Cornell holds a 22-15-1 lead in the all-time series after a bizarre 5-5 tie when the teams last met two weeks ago. The Big Red is now undefeated in its last four vs. BU.
•   Andrew Ellison stranded a whopping eight runners in just 2.1 innings of work to close out the deadlock on April 10. After Ellison induced an infield pop-up to leave the bases loaded in the top of the 10th, the umpires called the game due to darkness.
•   In the last game between the teams in Vestal, Ellis Bitar was 3-for-5 with a double and a fourth-inning grand slam to power Cornell to a 10-2 victory on April 26, 2017.

Up Next: 
•   Cornell returns home for a three-game Ivy League series against Harvard on Saturday and Sunday at Hoy Field.