ITHACA, N.Y. — The Cornell baseball team concludes its season-opening stretch of 18 games away from home when it travels to West Haven, Connecticut to take on 2018 Co-Ivy League champion Yale in a three-game series at Yale Field. A doubleheader at 11:30 a.m. Saturday will be followed by a single game at noon Sunday.
 

SERIES INFORMATION

Cornell at Yale
SITE: Yale Field — West Haven, Conn.
RECORDS: Cornell 4-11, 1-2 Ivy League;
                    Yale 8-12; 2-1 Ivy League
SERIES RECORD: Yale leads, 107-73
STATS: YaleBulldogs.com | Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3
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Probable starters
Game 1 • 11:30 a.m. Saturday, March 30
   Cornell (Wyatt, RHP, 1-2, 1.53)   •   Yale (Politz, RHP, 4-1, 2.95)
Game 2 • ~2:30 p.m. Saturday, March 30
   Cornell (Zacharias, RHP, 0-0, 2.35)   •   Yale (Stiegler, RHP, 3-2, 5.29)
Game 3 • Noon Sunday, March 31
   Cornell (Urbon, RHP, 0-4, 7.61)   •   Yale (Nambiar, LHP, 0-2, 6.08)

Cornell game notes (PDF)
Columbia game notes
 

Columbia Series Redux:

•   Opening Ivy League play with two straight weeks on the road against the top teams in the circuit last year, Cornell took one of three games last weekend at Columbia.
•   Josh Simpson pitched a three-hit shutout for the Lions in last Saturday's series opener before the Big Red's bats came alive in the Sunday doubleheader at Robertson Field in New York.
•   Cornell pounded out 12 hits in each of the series' final two games, including a 4-3 victory to start the doubleheader. Senior Josh Arndt and junior Matt Collins both swatted triples to right field to jump start Cornell's offense, and freshman Austin Flematti's two-run single capped the four-run inning. Junior John Natoli then dominated in long relief, fanning eight over the final 3.2 innings to record his first save.
•   The teams traded crooked numbers in the early innings of the rubber game before Columbia ultimately survived for a 13-8 victory.
 

The Big Red, In Brief:

•   Dan Pepicelli returns for his fourth season as the Ted Thoren Head Coach of Baseball. He has a 53-74-1 record at the helm, including a 21-17 record in 2016 that marked the program's fourth winning season since 1991.
•   Cornell was 14-24-1 overall last season with a 9-12 record in the Ivy League, which placed the Big Red sixth in the final Ancient Eight standings. The Big Red won three of its last four Ivy League series of the season.
•   This season marks the 150th year of baseball at Cornell, as it continues to be the oldest varsity sport at the university.
 

On Offense:

•   Cornell batted .265 as a team last weekend against Columbia, seeing the offense awaken after a rough start exacerbated by facing top-tier pitching from teams like Baylor and VCU in the opening weeks of the campaign.
•   Senior Josh Arndt leads the team with eight RBI, including three in Sunday's finale against Columbia. He was 5-for-11 last weekend to extend his hitting streak to a team-best five games.
•   Sophomore Ramon Garza got off to a strong start at Baylor, going 5-for-11 with a pair of doubles and a stolen base. He currently leads the team with a .259 average and six doubles, and he's a perfect 3-for-3 on stolen base attempts.
•   Senior Will Simoneit is also at the heart of the order. He joins Arndt in providing the Big Red's only home runs to date after eclipsing the .300 mark for a second straight year in 2018, ranking second on the team with a .308 average.
•   Freshman Justin Taylor leads the team with 10 walks, including an impressive four-walk game in the second game at Baylor. He is the Big Red's sixth different Opening Day shortstop over the last six years.
 

On The Mound:

•   Junior Colby Wyatt (1-2, 1.53) continues to lead qualifying Ivy League pitchers in earned run average, having posted 20 consecutive scoreless innings before Columbia forced three across last Saturday. The Ivy League Pitcher of the Week from March 11 has transitioned to the rotation after leading the Big Red in relief appearances last season, when he had 28 strikeouts in 24.2 innings.
•   Freshman Jonathan Zacharias (0-0, 2.35) is aligned for his third collegiate start after solid but relatively brief outings against Towson and Columbia. He joined classmate Luke Yacinich (1-3, 15.88) in becoming the first freshmen to make weekend starts in Dan Pepicelli's four years at the helm.
•   Junior Seth Urbon (0-4, 7.61) is the lone incumbent in the weekend rotation, scheduled to anchor the series this weekend. The transfer from Georgia Tech is the younger brother of Kellen Urbon '15, who was named a Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American in 2012.
•   In relief, junior John Natoli (2-1, 3.00, SV) has been a force with 20 strikeouts in 15 innings, and junior Andrew Ellison (0-0, 1.69, SV) has returned to the back end after a delayed start to his season. Freshman Kevin Cushing (0-0, 5.40) leads the team with six relief appearances to date.
 

Honor Roll:

•   Cornell placed five on the All-Ivy League teams last season, but just senior Will Simoneit returns from that group. Simoneit was placed on the All-Ivy Second Team for a second straight year, with the unique distinction of garnering those honors from different positions — catcher in 2017; third base in 2018.
 

About Yale:

•   The Bulldogs bring back the majority of its key contributors from a 2018 season that saw them share the Ivy League title with Columbia. Yale had the circuit's best regular-season record for a second straight year (this time at 15-6), but Columbia swept the Ivy League Championship Series.
•   Yale fell to 8-12 on the season after an 11-7 non-league loss to Hartford on Wednesday. Simon Whiteman and Griffin Dey had three hits apiece for the Bulldogs, who bullpened the game with seven different pitchers.
•   The Bulldogs led the league in both pitching and defense last season, returning two of its three weekend starters in senior ace RHP Scott Politz (4-1, 2.95) and senior LHP Kumar Nambiar (0-2, 6.08). RHP Alex Steigler (3-2, 5.29) has transitioned to the rotation after serving as the team's primary third baseman last year. 
•   While the pitching staff has largely struggled on the whole to date (7.07 team ERA), Yale's offense has produced to the tune of a .294 team batting average and 57 stolen bases through 20 games.
•   Simon Whiteman leads the team with a .374 average and nine doubles. His 17 stole bases are tied fo the team lead with Mason LaPlante. Jake Gehri leads the team with six home runs, and his 21 RBI are second on the team to just the 22 posted by first baseman/sidewinding reliever Griffin Dey.
•   John Stuper is in his 27th season as the head coach at Yale.
 

Series History vs. Columbia:

•   Yale holds a 107-73 lead in the all-time series after sweeping a bizarre three-game series last year at Hoy Field.
•   Will Simoneit was 3-for-4 in the series opener, but the Bulldogs held on for a 7-4 win. Yale won the middle game, 8-7, after two delays for accumulating snow, with the winning run reaching first on a passed ball following a third strike, then eventually coming home on another dropped third strike when the putout was completed with a throw to first base. The length of that game forced the finale to a Monday matinee, which Yale won, 7-4, despite Josh Arndt extending his hitting streak to 10 games. 
•   Cornell's last visit to Yale Field came when the Ivy League featured two divisions, which meant the teams played in just an annual doubleheader. The Big Red's visit in 2016 featured a pair of extra-inning affairs — both won by the Bulldogs.
•   The first meeting between the teams came in 1887.