ITHACA, N.Y. — The Cornell baseball team will host its final three regular season home games of the 2023 campaign this weekend when it welcomes Penn to Booth Field.

For the third straight weekend, Cornell is slated to play a single game on Friday followed by a doubleheader on Saturday. First pitch on Friday is scheduled for 12 p.m., while Saturday's pair of games will begin at 11:30 a.m. All games will air live on ESPN+.

Series Information

FRIDAY, APRIL 28 - 12:00 P.M.
LIVE VIDEO: ESPN+
LIVE STATS: CornellBigRed.com

SATURDAY, APRIL 29 - GAME ONE - 11:30 A.M.
LIVE VIDEO: ESPN+
LIVE STATS: CornellBigRed.com

SATURDAY, APRIL 29 - GAME TWO - APPROX: 2:30 P.M.
LIVE VIDEO: ESPN+
LIVE STATS: CornellBigRed.com

Scouting Penn

Penn enters this weekend with a 23-13 overall record and an 11-4 mark in Ivy League play, which is tied with Columbia for the lead among the Ancient Eight programs.

The Quakers are 15-8 on the road this year, having won nine of its last 10 road contests. Penn fell to Rider, 4-1, on Wednesday which snapped the Quakers' nine-game road win streak.

Ben Miller has a team-leading .333 batting average, one of four Quakers hitters to be hitting at a .300 clip. Jackson Appel (.326), Cole Palis (.325), and Davis Baker (.324) are the others.

Wyatt Henseler paces Penn's offense in home runs  (12) and RBI (48).

Pitching has been a strong suit of the Quakers this season with all three mainstays in the rotation having ERAs below 2.50 (Cole Zaffiro - 2.31; Ryan Dromboski - 2.37; Owen Coady - 2.41).

The Quakers have struck out 367 batters in 314 innings of work, leading to a 10.52 SO/9 ratio.

Last Weekend Rewind

Cornell was swept by Princeton in its first three games at Booth Field last weekend. The Tigers took the inaugural game at the Big Red's brand-new off-campus facility, 11-8, before taking both games of a doubleheader, 8-5 and 11-0 in seven innings.

Princeton hit 11 home runs on the weekend, taking advantage of the apparent hitter-friendly dimensions of Booth Field. Cornell hit two home runs on the weekend, but did record eight extra-base hits (five doubles, one triple, two home runs).

Junior catcher Nathan Waugh had a weekend to remember for the Big Red, batting .615 (8-of-13) with three doubles, three runs scored and an RBI. Thanks to his impressive weekend at the plate, he increased his batting average by 51 points.

Waugh(tch) It Fly!

Speaking of Waugh, the junior backstop has been Cornell's hottest hitter as of late. During his six-game hit streak — which matches his career long — Waugh has a .542 batting average with three doubles, one home run and five RBI. His OPS (on-base-plus-slugging percentage) in that timeframe is 1.384.

Dating back to the start of his first six-game hit of the season earlier this year (beginning with the nightcap of a March 26 twin bill at Yale), Waugh has posted a .444/.500/.778 slash line, going 24-of-54 at the plate with six doubles and four home runs.

Waugh's 18 RBI currently ranks second on the team, trailing sophomore infielder Max Jensen (19). Of Waugh's 18 RBI this season, 16 have come in his last 14 appearances.

When It Runs, It Pours

Cornell has displayed a knack of scoring runs in bundles so far this season. Of the Big Red's 140 runs scored this season, 102 have come in multi-run innings (72.9 percent of its run production). In its 29 games this season, Cornell has at least one multi-run inning in 22 games (75.9 percent).

Last weekend, Cornell recorded 18 of its 20 runs on the weekend in innings that featured at least two runs scored.

Fresh(men) Arms

After making nine starts so far this season, first-year pitchers Ethan Hamill and Noah Keller have both already made the third-most starts by a Cornell freshman pitcher on record in Cornell history, trailing Brian Williamson (1996) and Brian McAfee (2012), who both started 11 games in their respective seasons.

Should both Hamill and Keller start one game this weekend, they would become the first freshmen tandem in Big Red history to log 10-plus starts in the same season.

136 Years | 223 Miles | 289 Meetings

Cornell and Penn have met 289 times prior to this weekend's three-game series at Booth Field. The Quakers hold the advantage in the all-time series, 162-125-2.

The Big Red is 68-77 all-time at home against Penn and have won each of the last two contests.

In each of its last 12  home series against Penn, Cornell has posted at least one victory over the Quakers. The last time Penn swept a series against Cornell on its home field was in a four-game series on April 15-16, 1995.

Last year, Cornell was swept in a three-game series at Tommy Lasorda Field at Meiklejohn Stadium, giving up at least 10 runs in all three contests.

Senior left fielder Wils Guy had a team-leading four hits with a double and a stolen base in last year's series. Sophomore first baseman Max Jensen and senior Ryan Ross each chipped in three hits apiece in the series. Jensen had a double and two RBI to his credit. Senior right fielder Sam Kaplan hit a three-run home run in the series finale.

Going for the Long Ball

Cornell has hit 22 home runs so far this season, currently tied for the 17th-most on record in program history.

With four home runs this weekend against Penn, Cornell would be jump into a tie for the 10th-most home runs hit in a single season by a Big Red squad, matching the output by the team in 1985 (26).

Should Cornell hit three home runs over its final seven regular season contests , it would be the first time Cornell registered at least 25 home runs in consecutive seasons since 2009 and 2010. The Big Red hit a program-record 38 home runs in 2009 before logging 30 in 2010. Last year, the Big Red blasted 33 round-trippers, which stands as the fourth-most in program history.

After hitting 10 home runs over its first 15 games this season, Cornell has 12 home runs in 14 games in the month of April.

Eight of the Big Red's 12 home runs this month have come in multi-home run games (April 1 at Columbia - 3; April 2 at Columbia - 3; April 21 vs. Princeton - 2).

Trading Bases

Cornell has stolen 46 bases so far this season, averaging 1.59 steals per game, ranking 55th nationally. The Big Red's 46 steals are the third-most by an Ivy League program, trailing Yale (70) and Columbia (53).

With three steals this weekend, Cornell will match its season high from last season (49). The last time the Big Red had at least 49 steals in consecutive seasons was in 2012 (55) and 2013 (62).

Should the Big Red register at least four stolen bases this weekend against Penn, it would be Cornell's first 50-steal season as a program since 2013 when it had 62 steals, which is tied for the fifth-most stolen bases in a single season.

Sophomore center fielder Jakobi Davis has 12 stolen bases this season, the most by a Big Red player since JD Whetsel (19) and Spenser Souza (12) in 2013. Davis' 12 steals this season are tied for the 24th-most by a Cornell player.

If sophomore catcher/designated hitter John Quinlan or sophomore shortstop Ryan Porter — who both have seven steals this year — post three steals this weekend, they would join Davis in having a double-digit steal total. The last time Cornell had multiple players with 10-plus steals in a season was in 2014 when Tom D'Alessandro had a team-high 17 stolen bases and JD Whetsel was right behind with 15.

Seeing Double (Plays)

Cornell turned three doubles plays — in the first three innings — of its first game against Princeton last Friday in the inaugural game at Booth Field.

It was the third time this season in which Cornell turned a trio of twin killings in a game, joining the March 5 contest against then-No. 5-ranked Wake Forest and in the following game against VCU on March 10.

The Big Red is averaging 0.79 double plays turned per game, which is ranked 69th nationally. Only Columbia (0.94) is the lone Ivy League program to average more double plays per game than Cornell.

The trio of games with three double plays turned in a game are the most since having four games with three double plays turned in 2019.