ITHACA, N.Y. — The Cornell baseball team opens a three-game series against VCU at The Diamond this weekend in Richmond, Va.

This weekend's trio of games are the first of six consecutive contests for the Big Red in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Nine of Cornell's first 12 non-conference games of the 2023 slate will end up being played in Virginia (James Madison, VCU, and George Mason).

Series Information

FRIDAY, MARCH 10 - 2 P.M.
PROBABLE PITCHING MATCHUP: LHP Noah Keller (0-1, 8.22 ERA) vs. RHP Justin Humenay (0-0, 2.00 ERA)
LIVE VIDEO: ESPN+
LIVE STATS: StatBroadcast

SATURDAY, MARCH 11 - 2 P.M.
PROBABLE PITCHING MATCHUP: RHP Ethan Hamill (0-2, 9.00 ERA) vs. LHP Christian Gordon (2-1, 1.50 ERA)
LIVE VIDEO: ESPN+
LIVE STATS: StatBroadcast

SUNDAY, MARCH 12 - 1 P.M.
PROBABLE PITCHING MATCHUP: RHP Von Baker (0-1, 5.59 ERA) vs. TBA
LIVE VIDEO: ESPN+
LIVE STATS: StatBroadcast

Last Weekend Rewind

Cornell fell in all three of its contests at Winston-Salem, N.C., losing to Ball State, Purdue Fort Wayne, and to then-No. 5 ranked Wake Forest.

Senior outfielder Sam Kaplan registered three doubles on the weekend and sophomore John Quinlan logged his first collegiate home run — a three-run shot in the ninth inning — to prevent a Ball State shutout.

Freshman infielder TJ Swidorski hit a pair of doubles against No. 5-ranked Wake Forest in the final game of the three-game weekend series at the Demon Deacons' home field, David F. Couch Ballpark.

Junior right-handed pitcher Story Kimura made his collegiate debut in Sunday's loss to Wake Forest, striking out the first batter he faced. Freshman right-handed pitcher Carson Mayfield struck out a season-high three batters in the loss. Two of the three batters Mayfield fanned had a combined 14 home runs — including Brock Wilken, who is the active Division I career leader in home runs.

Reunion Time

Cornell head coach Dan Pepicelli and VCU head coach Bradley LeCroy will reunite this weekend in Richmond after the two coaches spent time together over the course of five seasons at Clemson, spanning from 2011-15.

Pepicelli was an assistant head coach in LeCroy's first two years before the current Big Red head coach was promoted to an associate head coaching role for his final three years in Tigertown.

LeCroy served as an assistant coach in all five years Pepicelli was at Clemson. The newly-minted VCU head coach remained with the Tigers program until he was named the Rams' head coach this past Aug. 2.

Waugh(tch) List

Junior catcher Nathan Waugh was one of 65 players named to the watch list for the 2023 Buster Posey National Collegiate Catcher of the Year Award, it was announced by the Wichita Sports Commission last Friday (March 3).

Waugh, the lone Ivy League catcher named to the list, is coming off a sophomore campaign in which he batted .310 with five doubles, two triples, five home runs, and 18 RBI. He also registered an OPS of .973 in his first true collegiate season after the 2021 season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The watch list will be narrowed down to semifinalists that will be announced May 22. The national voting committee will vote on three finalists that will be announced June 6. Following a final vote among the national committee members, the 2023 Buster Posey Award winner will be announced June 29.

28 Years | 430 Miles | 4 Meetings

Cornell and VCU have played four times prior to this weekend's series at The Diamond. The Rams have won all four previous meetings, outscoring the Big Red by a 30-13 margin.

The first contest between the two teams came on March 23, 1994, in which the Rams won 7-2.

VCU swept a three-game series over the first two days of March in 2019. Cornell only scored four runs in the series with three of the runs coming on a Nicholas Binnie bases-clearing double in the nightcap of the March 2 twinbill, which marked the last meeting between the two programs.

Mayfield Shining Early

Freshman right-handed pitcher Carson Mayfield has shined so far in his first three outings for the Big Red out of the bullpen this season.

Mayfield, a native of Annandale, Va., has a 2.57 ERA that leads the team among pitchers with at least three innings pitched. He has struck out seven batters in as many innings, while issuing just one walk.

His 7.00 strikeout-to-walk ratio and 1.29 walks-per-9-inning ratio ranked third in the Ivy League, behind Princeton's Jackson Emus and Dartmouth's Jack Metzger in both categories.

Among eligible players following the conclusion of Tuesday's games, Mayfield was tied for the eighth-best strikeout-to-walk ratio of eligible freshman pitchers.

Facing Tournament Teams

This weekend marks the second time in as many weeks that the Cornell baseball team will be facing a team that appeared in last season's NCAA Baseball Championship.

Last weekend, Cornell played Wake Forest who went 1-2 in the College Park Regional, and this weekend squares up against VCU, who made the championship of the Chapel Hill Regional, but losing twice to the host, North Carolina.

Cornell's other two opponents that appeared in last year's NCAA Tournament include last year's Ivy League champion, Columbia (April 1-2), and the America East champ Binghamton.

Bye, Bye, Baseball!

After its first six games of the season, Cornell has hit six home runs which is the most in a six-game span to open a season since the Big Red clubbed nine homers in its first six contests in 2016.

Cornell hit five home runs in its season-opening series at James Madison on Feb. 24-26, which marked the most homers in a three-game series series since the Big Red hit six against Dartmouth last year on April 23-24.

Of the six home runs, three have been a player's first collegiate home run. Sophomores Jakobi Davis and John Quinlan, and freshman TJ Swidorski are those who logged their first collegiate round-trippers.