ITHACA, N.Y. — The baseball team will look to keep its postseason hopes alive this weekend, when it travels to Brown for a three-game Ivy League series at Murray Stadium in Providence, R.I. The teams start off with a doubleheader at 11:30 a.m. Saturday, with the finale slated for 1 p.m. Sunday.

SERIES INFORMATION
Cornell at Brown
SITE: Murray Stadium — Providence, R.I.
RECORDS: Cornell 11-19-1, 6-9 Ivy League;
                    Brown 10-24, 5-13 Ivy League
SERIES RECORDS: Brown leads, 62-59-2
VIDEO: IvyLeagueNetwork.com
STATS: BrownBears.com
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Probable starters
Game 1 • 11:30 a.m. Saturday, May 5
   Cornell (Willittes, RHP, 3-4, 5.37)   •   Brown (Delano, RHP, 2-3, 3.73)
Game 2 • ~2:30 p.m. Saturday, May 5
   Cornell (Urbon, RHP, 2-2, 5.43)   •   Brown (Garner, RHP, 1-3, 4.47)
Game 3 • 1 p.m. Sunday, May 6
   Cornell (Morris, RHP, 0-2, 5.40)   •   Brown (Tomlinson, RHP, 3-2, 2.89)

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

What's at Stake:
•   Shaking off a 2-7 start to league play, the Big Red has taken two of three against both Penn and Harvard over the last two weeks to stay in the playoff chase. But to keep those hopes alive, Cornell must sweep its May 12-13 home series vs. Columbia in addition to the following scenarios ...
    -    Cornell sweeps Brown; Dartmouth wins two of three this weekend vs. Princeton; Harvard wins two of three May 12-13 at Dartmouth.
    -    Cornell sweeps Brown; Princeton wins two of three this weekend at Dartmouth; neither team sweeps May 12-13 series between Dartmouth and Harvard.
    -    Cornell sweeps Brown; Princeton sweeps Dartmouth this weekend; Dartmouth wins at least once in May 12-13 series at Harvard.
    -    Cornell wins two of three vs. Brown; Princeton sweeps Dartmouth this weekend; Dartmouth wins two of three May 12-13 vs. Harvard.

The Big Red, In Brief:
•   Cornell's bats have warmed up to the tune of a .287 average over the last 10 games, despite an 11-1 loss Wednesday at Binghamton that featured just four Cornell hits. Kaleb Lepper's triple was the only extra-base hit, and he scored the Big Red's lone run in the third inning before the Bearcats rattled off 10 unanswered runs.
•   The Big Red fell behind by four runs in each of last Saturday's games against Harvard, but rallied each time to take the first two games of the series, 10-8 and 7-4. The visiting Crimson avoided being swept by staving off the Big Red for a 6-2 win on Sunday.
•   Cornell has scored 139 runs in its last 22 (6.31 per game) after plating just 21 runs in its first nine (2.33 per game). There are four different batters — Dale Wickham, Ryan Krainz, Eliis Bitar and Will Simoneit — that enter the series at Brown with at least 14 hits in the last 10 games.
•   Austin Wahl has recorded nine consecutive scoreless outings in relief.

On Offense:
•   Senior Ellis Bitar has taken over the team lead with a .294 average and 28 RBI, though he had a streak of reaching base safely in 26 consecutive games snapped Wednesday. That was the program's longest such streak since Nathan Ford did so in all 40 games of the 2009 season.
•   Senior Dale Wickham is batting .290 overall after posting a .471 average with four home runs, 12 RBI and 1.469 OPS over the last 10 games alone. The team's primary designated hitter, Wickham was the Ivy League Player of the Week on April 23.
•   Junior Will Simoneit now bats .288, though he had a 10-game hitting streak snapped Wednesday. His seven stolen bases rank second on the team.
•   Senior Kyle Gallagher bats .281 with a team-high nine doubles and a .438 on base percentage, which ranks second on the team but third in the Ivy League. He's drawn 32 walks in just 31 games, which gives him the third-highest walks per game rate nationally (1.03).
•   The team's traditional lead-off hitter, senior Ryan Krainz has reached base safely in 29 of Cornell's 31 games. A selection to the All-Ivy League first team last year, Krainz has raised his average to .290 with 16 hits and six of his team-leading eight stolen bases over the last 10 games.

On The Mound:
•   Fifth-year senior Tim Willittes (3-4, 5.37) leads the team with 45 strikeouts and has tossed at least six innings in six of his nine starts. He's returned to the rotation after being granted a medical redshirt by the Ivy League for missing the 2015 season.
•   Sophomore Seth Urbon (2-2, 5.43) has given the Big Red some length with 21 innings over his last three starts (2-0, 4.29 ERA in that stretch). The transfer from Georgia Tech is the younger brother of former Cornell standout Kellen Urbon '15.
•   Senior Tommy Morris (0-2, 5.40) has re-entered the rotation in recent weeks. He was the Big Red's Opening Day starter at Texas A&M, then made four relief appearances after returning from injury before an April 22 start at Penn. 
•   Sophomore Colby Wyatt (0-1, 4.03, 2 SV) leads the team with 17 relief appearances. He ranks third on the team with 26 strikeouts despite working just 22.1 innings.
•   Sophomore Andrew Ellison (2-3, 2.25, 2 SV) has yielded just four extra-base hits in 22.1 innings over 13 appearances. He has stranded all 10 of the 11 runners he's inherited with the opposition batting just .122 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 13 appearances so far.

About Brown:
•   The Bears sit at 10-24 overall and 5-13 in the Ivy League after Tuesday's 13-inning, 2-1 loss to Dartmouth to wrap up a weather-hindered series. 
•   Parke Phillips has ascended to starting catcher, leading the team with a .353 average thanks to 12 hits over his last seven games. Brown hits .246 as a team. 
•   Garett Delano (2-3, 3.73) not only heads the Bears' rotation, he bats .279 with a team-leading 25 runs, six home runs, five stolen bases and .463 slugging percentage.
•   Sam Grigo (.250) has a team-high 29 RBI with five home runs and five steals.
•   Collin Garner (1-3, 4.47) and Will Tomlinson (3-2, 2.89) follow Delano in the weekend rotation. Tomlinson took a no-hitter into the fifth inning Tuesday at Dartmouth.
•   J.J. Sliepka (0-2, 3.91) leads the team with 19 relief appearances, and Dante Bosnic (1-1, 5.93) and Grant Greeno (0-2, 9.37) have both appeared 17 times. Brennan Vazquez (0-3, 3.26) leads the team with three saves.

Series History vs. Brown:
•   The Bears have swept its last two doubleheaders with the Big Red to take a 62-59-2 series lead. In the nine games before that, Cornell emerged victorious in eight of them.
•   Cornell's first victory against Brown came all the way back on May 7, 1912.

Up Next:
•   Cornell returns to Hoy Field for its final home series of the season, hosting Columbia in a three-game Ivy League set May 12-13.