ITHACA, N.Y. — Sitting 3½ games out of playoff position with nine Ivy League games remaining, the Cornell baseball team returns to Hoy Field for a pivotal three-game series against Harvard.

SERIES INFORMATION
Harvard at Cornell
SITE: Hoy Field — Ithaca, N.Y.
RECORDS: Cornell 9-17-1, 4-8 Ivy League;
                    Harvard 19-17, 9-6 Ivy League
SERIES RECORDS: Harvard leads, 105-51
VIDEO: IvyLeagueNetwork.com
STATS: CornellBigRed.com
- - - - - - - - -
Probable starters
Game 1 • 9 a.m. Saturday, April 28
   Harvard (Zavolas, RHP, 6-1, 2.90)   •   Cornell (Willittes, RHP, 3-4, 4.83)
Game 2 • ~Noon Saturday, April 28
   Harvard (K. Stone, RHP, 3-3, 7.24)   •   Cornell (Urbon, RHP, 1-2, 5.87)
Game 3 • 1 p.m. Sunday, April 29
   Harvard (Rosenblum-Larson, RHP, 2-2, 3.21)   •   Cornell (Morris, RHP, 0-1, 5.95)

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

The Big Red, In Brief:
•   Cornell has won three of its last four games, including a 12-3 victory on Tuesday night at Binghamton. The Big Red scored seven runs in the first two innings and cruised from there behind the effort of six pitchers, five of which posted scoreless outings.
•   Ellis Bitar and Will Simoneit were both 3-for-4 and combined for seven RBI, extending the Big Red's unbeaten streak against the Bearcats to five straight games. Adam Saks was credited with the victory by working two hitless innings.
•   The Big Red offense has warmed up, scoring 119 runs in its last 18 (6.61 per game) after plating just 21 runs in its first nine (2.33 per game).
•   Entering Thursday's games around the country, Cornell is up to 239th in the Ratings Percentage Index — which is fourth-highest among the eight teams in the Ivy League. Harvard remains the highest at 145th.

Penn Series Redux:
•   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 last weekend at Meiklejohn Stadium. 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 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.
•   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, then he drove in the eventual winning run in the eighth.

On Offense:
•   The reigning Ivy League Player of the Week, senior Dale Wickham is on a tear with 13 hits over his last six games to raise his average more than 100 points in just the last two weeks. He had home runs in four straight games until Tuesday's game at Binghamton. Wickham now bats .299, leads the team with five home runs and is tied for the team lead with 25 RBI. He is riding a seven-game hitting streak.
•   With 10 hits and 10 RBI over his last four games, senior Ellis Bitar has taken over the team lead with a .304 average and has moved into a tie for the RBI lead (25). Bitar enters the weekend on a streak of reaching base in 23 consecutive games. If he reaches safely in the first game of the Harvard series, it would be the program's longest such streak since Nathan Ford did so in all 40 games of the 2009 season.
•   Junior Will Simoneit is on his seven-game hitting streak, now batting .288. He's tied with senior lead-off man Ryan Krainz for the team lead with five stolen bases.
•   Senior Kyle Gallagher bats .286 and leads the team with a .453 on base percentage, which ranks third in the Ivy League. He's drawn 30 walks in just 27 games, which gives him the second-highest walks per game rate nationally (1.11). Gallagher, Bitar and junior Josh Arndt are tied for the team lead in doubles with seven.

On The Mound:
•   Fifth-year senior Tim Willittes (3-4, 4.83) has rebounded from a tough start to the year, posting a 3-2 record, 3.38 ERA and 32 strikeouts over his last six starts. Returning to the rotation after being granted a medical redshirt by the Ivy League for missing the 2015 season, Willittes has also worked at least six innings in his last six starts.
•   Sophomore Seth Urbon (1-2, 5.87) was stellar in his last outing at Hoy Field. Against Dartmouth on April 14, Urbon came up one out shy of a complete game. The transfer from Georgia Tech is the younger brother of former Cornell standout Kellen Urbon '15. 
•   Senior Tommy Morris (0-1, 5.95) has re-entered the rotation. The Big Red's Opening Day starter at Texas A&M, Morris made four relief appearances after returning from injury and received a no-decision in last Sunday's start at Penn.
•   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.

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 10 appearances so far.

About Harvard:
•   The Crimson is coming off a three-game road sweep of Princeton in a makeup Ivy League series played Tuesday and Wednesday.
•   Ben Skinner lead the team with a .317 average and eight doubles, and he is tops in the Ivy League with 15 stolen bases. Patrick McColl (.280) is tied for the Ivy lead with 36 RBI — 20 of which have come with two out. Jake Suddleson (.256) has a team-high five home runs. Patrick Robinson (.308) was first-team All-Ivy in 2017.
•   Harvard relies heavily on its starters. Noah Zavolas (6-1, 2.90) leads the league in victories and ERA, having thrown a no-hitter with 12 strikeouts on April 13 at Yale. Simon Rosenblum-Larson (2-2, 3.02) leads the league in strikeouts per nine innings (11.19). Kieran Shaw (2-4, 7.59, 4 SV) is the team's primary closer.

Series History vs. Harvard:
•   Harvard holds a 105-51 lead in the all-time series, but Cornell has won seven of the last 11 games between the programs.
•   Will Simoneit smashed three doubles in last year's doubleheader split at Harvard. Tim Willittes fanned seven in five innings of work in the opener, but the Crimson rallied to win, 7-5. The Big Red countered with a 9-5 victory, with Trey Baur hitting a two-run double that extended a hit streak to nine games.
•   Cornell swept both games in Harvard's last visit to Hoy Field, winning 6-4 and 5-1 in a 2016 doubleheader.

Up Next:
•   For the second time in a stretch of nine days, Cornell will make the short trek to Vestal to take on Binghamton in a non-league game at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday.