ITHACA, N.Y. — The Cornell baseball team wraps up a busy stretch of nine games in 11 days when it returns to Hoy Field for its first of three mid-week meetings with regional rival Binghamton.
 

GAME INFORMATION

Binghamton at Cornell
3 p.m. Tuesday, April 9
SITE: Hoy Field — Ithaca, N.Y.
RECORDS: Cornell 7-16, 2-7 Ivy League;
                    Binghamton 12-12; 3-2 America East
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads, 23-16-1
VIDEO: ESPN+
STATS: CornellBigRed.com
PROBABLE STARTERS: Cornell (Yacinich, RHP, 2-3, 10.38)
                                         Binghamton (Dziados, RHP, 0-1, 3.14)
Cornell game notes (PDF)
 

Brown Series Redux:

•   The Bears only outhit the Big Red, 27-25, over a three-game Ivy League set over the weekend at Hoy Field, but Brown took advantage of eight unearned runs and quality pitching out of the stretch to sweep the series.
•   Alex Carnegie launched a three-run home run in the ninth inning of Saturday's first  game, but Brown had already built a big lead en route to an 11-3 victory. The Bears took advantage of a couple Big Red errors in the third inning to build a 3-0 lead, then piled on with five more in the fifth.
•   Jonathan Zacharias fanned a season-high seven in his fourth collegiate start, but the Bears manufactured a run in the first inning and stayed in control behind a gem from starting pitcher Collin Garner. Brown doubled its lead in the top of the ninth, and that run turned out to be the difference after three straight singles brought in Cornell's first run in the bottom of the ninth.
•   The Big Red stole seven bases in Sunday's series finale, but a late surge came up short in a 7-3 loss. Will Simoneit was 3-for-3 with a pair of steals.
•   For the weekend, the Big Red batters were 17-for-50 (.340) with the bases empty over the three games against just 8-for-50 (.160) with runners on base.
 

#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. After falling in all three games to Brown last weekend, Cornell is now four games off the pace with four weekends to play before the Ivy League Championship Series. 
 

The Big Red, In Brief:

•   Dan Pepicelli returns for his fourth season as the Ted Thoren Head Coach of Baseball. He has a 56-79-1 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 9.2 hits per game over the last 10 contests after averaging just 4.85 over its first 13 games. Over the last 10, the team is batting .274 with 21 doubles, it's outslugging its opponents, and it has four players batting .333 or better.
•   Senior Adam Saks boasts a .333 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 has reached base safely in all 11 of his starts.
•   Another converted pitcher is patrolling the outfield in sophomore Nicholas Binnie, who owns a .276 batting average.
•   Senior Will Simoneit (.280) 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 eight games.
•   Sophomore Ramon Garza has a team-high seven doubles and has reached safely in his last seven games.
 

On The Mound:

•   The Big Red boasts the Ivy League's top two pitchers in terms of earned run average, but junior Colby Wyatt (2-3, 2.21) and freshman Jonathan Zacharias (0-2, 2.28) are earmarked for weekend starts.
•   Freshman Luke Yacinich (2-3, 10.38) is slated to make his second straight midweek start. He lowered his ERA by more than five runs in his last outing, tossing six scoreless frames to earn the victory against St. Bonaventure on April 2.
•   In relief, junior John Natoli (2-1, 2.18, 3 SV) has been a force with 26 strikeouts in 20.2 innings, and junior Andrew Ellison (0-0, 1.98, SV) has returned to the back end of the bullpen after a delayed start to his season. 
•   Freshman Kevin Cushing (0-0, 5.62) ranks second on the team with eight relief appearances to date. Another freshman, Niko Lillios (0-0, 4.15), has also emerged as a key cog in the bullpen with seven outings.
•   Junior Jeb Bemiss (1-1, 8.64) has yielded just one run while fanning 13 over nine innings during his last two outings.
 

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 Binghamton:

•   The Bears are 12-12 overall and 3-2 in America East, having won a pair of non-league home games last weekend against Niagara, 16-4 on Saturday, and Central Connecticut State, 3-2 on Sunday.
•   As a team, Binghamton is batting .264, has a 4.64 earned run average and .974 fielding percentage. Tim Sinicki is in his 27th season as the head coach.
•   Alex Baratta leads the team with a .377 average, followed by Daniel Franchi's .323 mark. Franchi also leads the team with three homes runs, a .495 slugging percentage, and his five stolen bases are tied for most on the team with Shane Marshall (.314).
•   Marshall leads the team in doubles (eight), triples (two) and RBI (19). 
•   Luke Dziados (0-1, 3.14) is scheduled to make his fourth start of the season, having also made a pair of relief appearances. He had a season-high six strikeouts March 19 at Kennesaw State. In his last start, he yielded three runs in 3.2 innings against Bucknell last Wednesday — though two of the runs were unearned.
•   Robert Brown (3-0, 5.14) and Jack Collins (0-1, 5.28) are tied for a team-high nine relief appearances. Ryan Bryggman (0-3, 12.46) leads the way with a pair of saves.
 

Series History vs. Binghamton:

•   Cornell holds a 23-16-1 lead in the all-time series after a rare split of three games between the programs last year. The Cornell victory came on April 24 at the Bearcats' Baseball Complex. Will Simoneit was 3-for-4 with a home run and four RBI, as Cornell scored seven runs in the first two frames in a 12-3 win. Binghamton won the final game between the programs last season, 11-1, on May 2. 
•   A bizarre 5-5 tie was the result of the teams' first meeting last year on April 10 at Hoy Field. Andrew Ellison stranded a whopping eight runners in just 2.1 innings of work, including leaving the bases loaded in the top of the 10th. The umpires then called the game due to darkness.
 

Up Next:

•   Cornell hits the middle of its Ivy League schedule this weekend, traveling to league-leading Harvard for a three-game series. The Big Red then returns home for a three-game set April 20-21 against Princeton.