ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell softball team will hit the road in Ivy League play for the first time in 2019 when it visits Columbia for a three-game series beginning with a doubleheader on Saturday, April 13 at 12:30 p.m. at Columbia Softball Stadium. The teams will play a single game on Sunday, April 14 at 12:30 p.m. All three games will be broadcast on ESPN+.

The Big Red is 6-25 on the season while fielding one of the youngest teams in college softball, with seven of the squad's nine position players and one of the squad's two starting pitchers in their freshmen seasons. Despite their youth, head coach Julie Farlow's squad is tied for the league's lead in home runs (17) and is second in doubles (40) and walks (75). Cornell's batting average (.265) and fielding percentage (.955) in league play is better than its overall totals, and the team is 3-6 in its last nine contests after going 3-19 to begin the year. 

Freshman Allison Kerce (.323, five home runs, 18 RBI) is batting .424 with a league-high four home runs in its nine conference contests. Six of the team's top seven hitters this season have been freshmen, with junior Bridgette Rooney batting a team-high .323 with four home runs and a team-best 21 RBI being the lone upperclassmen. In fact, seniors have only accounted for six of the team's 785 at bats offensively (99.2 percent), with freshmen accounting for 539 (68.7 percent). 

Freshman Ashley Delany (3-8, 7.63 ERA) and junior Katie Lew (3-12, 9.09 ERA) both have three victories in the circle, with Lew striking out 49 in 67 innings of work. Junior Lisa Nelson has missed much of the last month due to injury, but returned in Tuesday's doubleheader split with Colgate to hurl 2.2 perfect innings with five strikeouts. Backing them is a team that sports a .952 fielding percentage 

The Lions enter the weekend tied for first place by percentage with Penn (8-4), Harvard (6-3) and Princeton (6-3) with their 6-3 record. The Lions are 14-15 overall, including 3-1 at home. Columbia has lost 3-of-4 games entering the weekend, including an 8-2 defeat at the hands of Monmouth on Wednesday. Max Ortega (.389, 21 RBI), Maria Pagane (.340, 14 RBI) and Sommer Grzybek (.333, six home runs, 15 RBI) pace an offense hitting .275 as a unit and is tied with the Big Red atop the Ivy standings in home runs with 17. Madison Canby (5-6, 3.63 ERA) and Alexa Pinarski (8-6, 5.02 ERA) have thrown the lion's share of innings in the circle with Columbia fielding at a .960 clip behind them. Fifth-year head coach Jennifer Teague guided the Lions to a 21-19 record and the first winning Ivy season in program history a year ago at 13-8.