ITHACA, N.Y. — The Cornell baseball team plays its final three regular season games of the 2023 season this weekend when it travels to Hanover, N.H., to take on Dartmouth at Red Rolfe Field at Biondi Park.

Series Information

SATURDAY, MAY 6 - GAME ONE - 11:30 A.M.
LIVE VIDEO: ESPN+ | NESN+
LIVE STATS: DartmouthSports.com

SATURDAY, MAY 6 - GAME TWO - APPROX: 2:30 P.M.
LIVE VIDEO: ESPN+
LIVE STATS: DartmouthSports.com

SUNDAY, MAY 7 - 12:00 P.M.
LIVE VIDEO: ESPN+
LIVE STATS: DartmouthSports.com

Scouting Dartmouth

Dartmouth enters this weekend with a 2-34 overall record and a 1-17 mark in Ivy League play.

Clark Gilmore tossed a complete game six-hitter last Saturday against Brown, lifting the Big Green to a 2-1 triumph, snapping a 27-game losing streak, which was the longest in Dartmouth's 150-year history.

The Big Green is looking to snap its Division I-leading home losing streak this weekend (11 games). Dartmouth has not won at Red Rolfe Field at Biondi Park since defeating Columbia, 12-11 in 10 innings, in last year's regular-season finale on May 15.

Elliot Krewson (.305) is the lone Dartmouth player to be hitting at a .240 clip this season. Tyler Cox, last year's Ivy League Rookie of the Year, has a .397 average in 17 games but has not played in over a month. Ryan Schwartz is batting .300 in 14 games — all of which have come since his season debut on March 14.

Jack Metzger (0-7, 7.46 ERA) has 47 strikeouts while issuing just six walks over 56.2 innings of work this season. Metzger ranks fourth nationally in walks-per-9-innings (0.95) and ninth in strikeout-to-walk ratio (7.83).

Last Weekend Rewind

Cornell battled with Ivy League-leading Penn last weekend at Booth Field, dropping a pair of one-run contests and posting an 11-9 victory in the nightcap of Friday's doubleheader.

The Big Red scored five runs in the bottom of the eighth to defeat Penn, 11-9, splitting last Friday's doubleheader. It was the Big Red's first-ever win at Booth Field, the program's brand-new, off-campus facility. Senior right fielder Sam Kaplan punctuated the victory with an opposite field, three-run home run.

Senior third baseman Joe Hollerbach batted .500 (5-of-10) on the weekend, slugging a pair of home runs and driving in four RBI. Sophomore shortstop Ryan Porter (.417, HR, 3 RBI, 2 SB), sophomore center fielder Jakobi Davis (.364, two doubles), and senior right fielder Sam Kaplan (.333, home run, 5 RBI) also stood out offensively for the Big Red last weekend.

Youth Movement

Right-handed pitcher Ethan Hamill and left-handed pitcher Noah Keller each made their 10th starts of the season last weekend against Penn, marking the first time in Cornell program history that a pair of first-year pitchers have registered at least 10 starts in a season.

The duo have the most starts by a freshman pitcher since Brian McAfee started in all 11 of his appearances in 2012. Brian Williamson was the first freshman pitcher to make at least 10 starts, establishing the program record in 1996 (11).

Cornell has valued its freshmen pitchers on the mound this season as six first-year pitchers (Hamill, Keller, John Gerfen, Carson Mayfield, Josh Shea, and Beck Urofsky) have combined for 169.2 innings of work this season, roughly 63 percent of the team's innings total.

Tough to Touch

According to the Cornell record book, Edwards' career batting average against of .252 is the fourth-best figure in program history. Only Chris Schutt (2001-03 - .224), Brian McAfee (2012-15 - .243), and David Rochefort (2007-10 - .252) are those ahead of Edwards.

Waugh(tch) It Fly!

Junior catcher Nathan Waugh has been Cornell's hottest hitter lately, as he is slashing .467/.556/.667 over his last eight games with three doubles, a home run and six RBI.

After batting just .133 (4-of-30) in his first nine games of the season, Waugh is hitting at a .417 clip (25-of-60) with six doubles, four home runs, and 17 RBI. Over his last 16 games, Waugh has eight multi-hit games — including a pair of four-hit games — and four multi-RBI games, two of which featured four RBI.

When It Runs, It Pours

Cornell has displayed a knack of scoring runs in bundles so far this season. Of the Big Red's 158 runs scored this season, 117 have come in multi-run innings (74.1 percent of its run production). In its 32 games this season, Cornell has at least one multi-run inning in 25 games (78.1 percent).

Last weekend, Cornell recorded 15 of its 18 runs on the weekend in innings that featured at least two runs scored.

118 Years | 297 Miles | 184 Meetings

Prior to this weekend's series, Cornell and Dartmouth have met 184 times on the baseball diamond, dating back to the first meeting between the two Ivy League programs in 1906.

The Big Green currently own the advantage in the series, 99-84-1, and have won three of the last four games.

Cornell is seeking for its second straight series victory at Red Rolfe Field at Biondi Park after it took two of three from the Big Green in its last trip to Hanover in 2019. The last time the Big Red won consecutive series in Hanover was when it swept two-game series in 1982 and 1984.

Last year at Hoy Field, Sam Kaplan had a weekend to remember as he batted .500 (6-of-12) with seven runs scored, two triples, three home runs, and four RBI. 

Max Jensen, Jason Apostle, and Nathan Waugh hit home runs for the Big Red. Ryan Porter registered three of Cornell's five steals on the weekend.

Nothing Extra, Please

Cornell has not gone to extra innings yet this season in any of its 32 games. The lone game to not end in nine innings was on April 22 when the Big Red lost to Princeton, 11-0, in seven innings as play was called in the eighth due to rain.

The Big Red is one of 18 NCAA Division I programs to not go to extra innings this season. Joining  the Big Red are: Alabama A&M, Canisius, Delaware State, East Tennessee State, Florida, Georgia Southern, Kansas State, Louisville, New Orleans, Oregon, Princeton, Saint Peter's, UC Riverside, UC San Diego, UMBC, Wake Forest, and Washington State.

The last time Cornell played an entire season without playing an extra-inning contest — excluding the 2020 season that was shortened due to the COVID-19 pandemic — was in 1997.

Going for the Long Ball

Cornell has hit 26 home runs so far this season, currently tied for the 10th-most in a season.

With four home runs this weekend, Cornell would jump into a tie for the fifth-most home runs in a season by a Big Red squad, matching the outputs by the 1995 and 2010 squads (30).

Should Cornell hit four home runs this weekend, it would be the first time Cornell registered consecutive 30-home run seasons since 2009 and 2010. The Big Red blasted a program-record 38 home runs in 2009 before logging 30 the following year in 2010.

Last season, the Big Red posted 33 round-trippers, which currently stands as the fourth-most by a Big Red team.

Trading Bases

Cornell has stolen 51 bases so far this season, averaging 1.59 steals per game, ranking 55th nationally. The 51 steals are the third-most by an Ivy League program, trailing Yale (77) and Columbia (56).

After stealing five bases last weekend, Cornell has at least 49 steals in consectuvie years for the first time since 2012 (55) and 2013 (62). The Big Red's 51 steals are the first time it has surpassed the 50-steal mark since 2013.

With three steals this weekend, the Big Red would enter the top 10 for most steals in a season, matching the output from 1985 (54).

Sophomore center fielder Jakobi Davis has 13 steals this season, the most by a Big Red player since Tom D'Alessandro (17) and JD Whetsel (15) in 2014. Davis' 13 steals are tied with William Whelan (1952), Dave Johnson (1977), Bob Dipipi (1985), and Brian Billigen (2012) for the 19th-most by a Cornell player in a season.

With one steal this weekend, sophomore shortstop Ryan Porter 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 (D'Alessandro — 17; Whetsel — 15)