ITHACA, N.Y. — The Cornell baseball team heads to SEC country for the first time this year, taking on South Carolina in a three-game series this weekend at Founders Park. 

Series Information:

Cornell at South Carolina
SITE: Founders Park — Columbia, S.C.
RECORDS: Cornell 1-5, 0-0 Ivy League;
                    South Carolina 8-4, 0-0 SEC
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads, 1-0
BROADCAST: SEC Network Plus | Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3
LIVE STATS: GamecocksOnline.com | Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3
AUDIO: TuneIn
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Probable starters
Game 1 • 4 p.m. Friday, March 6
   Cornell (Wyatt, RHP, 0-2, 6.75)   •   South Carolina (Mlodzinski, RHP, 1-1, 3.15)
Game 2 • 4 p.m. Saturday, March 7
   Cornell (Edwards, LHP, 0-2, 3.38)   •   South Carolina (Farr, RHP, 2-0, 2.79)
Game 3 • 1 p.m. Sunday, March 8
   Cornell (Natoli, RHP, 1-0, 0.82)   •   South Carolina (Jordan, RHP, 1-0, 1.69)
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Cornell game notes (PDF)

Niagara Series Redux:

•   Cornell won its first game of the season in last weekend's neutral-site series finale against Niagara, holding on a for a 6-5 victory on Sunday in Colonial Heights, Va. 
•   John Natoli earned the victory with six innings of quality work, fanning seven while working around just a skinny run scored in the first inning. Niagara rallied for the last four runs of the game before Seth Urbon recorded his first collegiate save. The Big Red pounded out a season-high 13 hits, with Nicholas Binnie hitting a home and added a second RBI on a sacrifice fly.
•   The Purple Eagles started the series with a Saturday doubleheader sweep, 8-4 and 8-6. Joe Hollerbach hit the Big Red's first home run of the season, and Wils Guy and Shane Russell drove in the other runs for Cornell.
•   Niagara then posted crooked numbers in the second and sixth innings to blow open Saturday's night cap before a valiant Cornell comeback. After Alex Carnegie's sacrifice fly got the Big Red on the board in the seventh, Ramon Garza hit a three-run homer and Guy added a two-run double in the eighth to cut the deficit to two before the rally petered out. Four Cornell combined to record 14 strikeouts.

The Big Red, In Brief:

•   Cornell was 14-24 overall last season with a 8-13 record in the Ivy League, which placed the Big Red in a tie for seventh place.
•   The Big Red returns the bulk of its primary contributors from last season while adding a a freshman class of 10 that is expected to make an immediate impact. 
•   Cornell placed two on the All-Ivy League teams last season, including current senior John Natoli. Though starting this year in the rotation, Natoli was a unanimous pick for the lone relief pitcher's spot on the All-Ivy League first team last year.
•   The Big Red returns 98% if its innings pitched from last season. Cornell had a team ERA of 4.52 last year with 249 strikeouts against 117 walks.
•   Dan Pepicelli is in his fifth season as the Ted Thoren Head Coach of Baseball. He has a 64-92-1 record at the helm on East Hill.

On Offense:

•   Freshman Wils Guy leads the team with a .364 average after going 5-for-12 with a pair of doubles, three RBI and three walks against no strikeouts in last weekend's series. Having led off in all six games to date, Guy also leads the way with a .440 on base percentage
•   In a lot of ways, it was open tryouts for starting offensive spots when the Big Red reconvened to prepare for 2020. The three bats that had the strongest hold on starting roles last year all graduated – Josh Arndt '19, Adam Saks '19 and Will Simoneit '19. Four of the Big Red's seven qualifying batters after six games are freshmen.
•   While Cornell batted .224 for the season in 2019, there was an upward trend as the season progressed. After April 1, the Big Red averaged 8.38 hits per game after averaging just 5.82 in games prior to that date. Cornell had another slow start to the season in its season-opening series at nationally-ranked Duke, but rebounded last weekend with a .261 average.

On The Mound:

•   The Big Red returns 98% of its innings pitched last year. Cornell's team earned run average was 4.52 for the season and ranked second in the Ivy League with a 4.25 mark in 21 conference games.
•   Not surprisingly, that trend has continued in the early going this year with a 3.88 earned run average that leads Ivy League programs entering this weekend. 
•   Senior Colby Wyatt (0-2, 6.75) leads the rotation after doing so in each of the Big Red's eight weekends to close out 2019, making a total of 10 starts for a 3-6 record, 3.68 ERA over a team-high 63.2 innings.
•   Freshman Spencer Edwards (0-2, 3.38) has impressed early, garnering Ivy League Rookie of the Week honors on Feb. 24 after yielding just one run in five innings at Duke.
•   A unanimous first-team All-Ivy League selection last year, senior John Natoli (1-0, 0.82) is off to the races this year as a starter. He led the team in victories with a 5-2 record despite only making one start among his 19 appearances last year. He sported a 1.73 ERA with seven saves, and he led the team with 46 strikeouts in just 36.1 innings.
•   The Big Red has myriad options out of the bullpen, both in long and short relief. Among those with the most innings last year are senior Andrew Ellison (0-0, 0.00), senior Seth Urbon (0-1, 9.00, SV), sophomore Jonathan Zacharias (0-0, 3.86) and sophomore Luke Yacinich (0-0, 9.82). 

About South Carolina:

•   The Gamecocks improved to 8-4 after a 3-1 victory in 12 innings on Tuesday at Furman. South Carolina was then scheduled to host Boston College on Wednesday, but the game was canceled due to inclement weather.
•   South Carolina is batting .262 through 12 games.  Wes Clarke's six home runs rank sixth in the country as of Thursday, and his 17 RBI ranks 23rd. He's batting .310 in the early going, which is just one point behind Andrew Eyster — who is tied for a team-high three doubles and has two homers.
•   Noah Campbell is batting .270 and ranks 12th nationally with eight of the team's 20 stolen bases. Brady Allen is batting .278 and has drawn eight walks against just four strikeouts.
•   The Gamecocks' pitching staff sports a 3.25 ERA and has limited opponents to a .190 average while racking up 131 strikeouts in 108 innings.
•   Redshirt sophomore Cameron Mlodzinski (1-1, 3.15) heads the rotation, having been named a top 10 prospect for the 2020 MLB draft and a second-team preseason All-American by Baseball America. He yielded just one run over 14 innings in starts against Holy Cross and Northwestern before being touched up for six runs in six innings by Clemson last Friday.
•   Redshirt sophomore Thomas Farr (2-0, 2.79), in his first season with the Gamecocks after transferring from junior college, is in line to make his third start. 
•   Junior Brannon Jordan (1-0, 1.69) is yielding just 2.81 hits per game through three starts. He's scheduled to start Sunday's finale.

The Series With South Carolina:

•   The Big Red and the Gamecocks have met just once before, with Cornell securing a 3-1 victory on March 23, 1972 as part of a 4-3 performance at the Riverside Tournament. 
•   Cornell also had victories against Tennessee and Arizona State on the trip and would eventually post a 20-10-1 record that season, winning a share of the Eastern Intercollegiate Baseball League title.

Up Next:

•   Cornell's final tune-up before the start of Ivy League play comes next weekend, when it travels to VMI for a three-game series March 14-15. The Big Red then opens the league slate March 21-22 with three games at Princeton.