ITHACA, N.Y. — After playing 19 of its first 20 games away from home, the Cornell baseball team plays its first Ivy League home series with three games against Brown at Hoy Field. A doubleheader at 11:30 a.m. Saturday will be followed by a single game at noon Sunday.
 

SERIES INFORMATION

Brown at Cornell
SITE: Hoy Field — Ithaca, N.Y.
RECORDS: Cornell 7-13, 2-4 Ivy League;
                    Brown 5-17; 2-4 Ivy League
SERIES RECORD: Brown leads, 63-61-2
VIDEO: ESPN+ | Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3
STATS: CornellBigRed.com
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Probable starters
Game 1 • 11:30 a.m. Saturday, April 6
   Cornell (Wyatt, RHP, 2-2, 1.23)   •   Brown (Delano, RHP, 1-3, 6.09)
Game 2 • ~2:30 p.m. Saturday, April 6
   Cornell (Zacharias, RHP, 0-1, 2.33)   •   Brown (Garner, RHP, 0-4, 6.40)
Game 3 • Noon Sunday, April 7
   Cornell (Urbon, RHP, 0-5, 8.38)   •   Brown (To Be Announced)

Cornell game notes (PDF)
 

Spring Break Redux:

•   The Big Red started its Spring Break by playing five games over five days, going 3-2 over the stretch. After wrapping up its series at Yale on Monday with a 7-2 loss, Cornell got terrific starts from Luke Yacinich and Jeb Bemiss, and 25 hits from a resurgent offense to record a pair of midweek non-league victories.
•   In its home opener on Tuesday, Cornell downed St. Bonaventure, 8-1, behind four hits from senior leadoff man Adam Saks and six scoreless innings from Yacinich. 
•   Back on the road Wednesday, the Big Red quelled a fast and furious Army West Point attack on a fast field with a strong wind blowing straight out to left field. Bemiss struck out a career-high eight in 5.2 scoreless frames, and John Natoli locked down his third save. Will Simoneit was 5-for-5 with his second home run of the season, giving Cornell its first five-hit performance in nearly two years.
•   Bemiss and Yacinich entered the week with a combined ERA of 33.49, but they lowered that total by nearly 13 runs to 18.50 after combining for 11.2 scoreless frames.
 

#OneIvy Update:

•   Cornell had the most difficult schedule possible to start Ivy League play this season, going on the road the last two weekends to play the top two teams from the circuit in 2018. The Big Red took one game in each of the series against Columbia and Yale and — with the league bereft of any sweeps so far — sits just two games off the pace. 
 

The Big Red, In Brief:

•   Dan Pepicelli returns for his fourth season as the Ted Thoren Head Coach of Baseball. He has a 56-76-1 record at the helm, including a 21-17 record in 2016 that marked the program's fourth winning season since 1991.
•   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's bats are continuing their upward trend, having now averaged 9.57 hits per game over the last seven contests after averaging just 4.85 over its first 13 games. The team is batting .284 over with 19 doubles over the last seven games alone.
•   Senior Adam Saks boasts a .400 average, having taken over the everyday role in center field while primarily batting leadoff. After spending his first three years on East Hill exclusively deployed as a pitcher, Saks enters the weekend on a seven-game hitting streak and having reached base safely in all eight of his starts.
•   Another converted pitcher is patrolling the outfield in sophomore Nicholas Binnie, who owns a .271 batting average.
•   Senior Will Simoneit (.268) has two of the team's three home runs to date, having topped .300 in each of the last two seasons.
•   Senior Josh Arndt and freshman Austin Flematti are tied for the team with nine RBI apiece, with all five of Arndt's doubles coming over the last five games.
•   Sophomore Ramon Garza has a team-high seven doubles, and junior Matt Collins is a perfect 7-for-7 on attempted stolen bases.
 

On The Mound:

•   The Big Red's Saturday starters are currently ranked 1 and 2 among qualifying Ivy League pitchers in earned run average. Junior Colby Wyatt (2-2, 1.23) continues to impress, having yielded just four runs (three earned) across five starts. He has transitioned to the rotation after leading the Big Red in relief appearances last season.
•   Freshman Jonathan Zacharias (0-1, 2.33) is aligned for his fourth collegiate start after solid but relatively brief four-inning outings in the first three. He joined classmate Luke Yacinich (2-3, 10.38) in becoming the first freshmen to make weekend starts in Dan Pepicelli's four years at the helm.
•   Junior Seth Urbon (0-5, 8.38) 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, 2.55, 3 SV) has been a force with 24 strikeouts in 17.2 innings, and junior Andrew Ellison (0-0, 2.53, SV) has returned to the back end after a delayed start to his season. Freshman Kevin Cushing (0-0, 5.62) leads the team with eight 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 Brown:

•   The Bears are 5-17 overall and 2-4 in the Ivy League, having ended a five-game losing streak with a 14-7 win Monday in a wild series with Penn. The first game of the  set was more than five hours long before the Quakers won in 16 innings, 8-7.
•   As a team, Brown is batting .239, has an 8.35 earned run average and .956 fielding percentage. Grant Achilles is in his fifth season as the head coach.
•   Joe Lomuscio leads the team with a .305 average, while Willy Homza bats .303 with some other impressive offensive numbers. His four home runs are tied for the team lead with Rich Ciufo (.188), and Homza has a gaudy .539 slugging percentage and .475 on-base percentage thanks to 24 walks against just 14 strikeouts.
•   Parke Phillips (.289) leads the team with 16 RBI.
•   Garett Delano (RHP, 1-3, 6.09) is slated to start the series opener, though he also bats .250 while playing right field in games in which he doesn't pitch.
•   Collin Garner (RHP, 0-4, 6.40) is the probable starter for Game 2, while the Bears have yet to determine a starter for the finale. Two of the most likely candidates are Will Tomlinson (RHP, 0-3, 7.06) and Ryan Kuntz (RHP, 0-1, 8.10), who tied for the team lead with 10 appearances apiece.
 

Series History vs. Brown:

•   Cornell won two of three games in a late-season series last year at Murray Stadium in Providence, closing the gap in Brown's all-time lead in the series, 63-61-2.
•   The Big Red has won 10 of its last 16 games against the Bears. Cornell's first victory against Brown came all the way back on May 7, 1912.
 

Up Next:

•   Cornell continues its home-heavy stretch with a non-league game against Binghamton at 3 p.m. Tuesday at Hoy Field before resuming Ivy League play next weekend with three games at Harvard.