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| Probable Starting Pitchers |
| Day |
Cornell |
Opponent |
| Fri. 1:30 p.m. ET |
LHP William Jaun (1-2, 11.25 ERA) |
RHP Kyle Roche (1-3, 2.13 ERA) |
| Sat. 1 p.m. ET |
RHP Carson Mayfield (0-2, 13.03 ERA) |
LHP Brian Reinke (0-2, 3.60 ERA) |
| Sun. 12 p.m. ET |
RHP Ethan Hamill (0-0, 8.00 ERA) |
TBA |
ITHACA, N.Y. — The Cornell baseball team is scheduled to conclude its season-opening 11-game road trip this weekend when it squares off against Richmond at Pitt Field in a three-game series.
All three games of the series will be broadcast on ESPN+, with the Saturday only having a high-home angle available.
WELCOME (BACK) TO THE COMMONWEALTH!
This weekend will be the last of three consecutive series Cornell will play inside the Commonwealth of Virginia. Cornell opened the string of games in the Commonwealth being swept by James Madison in a three-game series in Harrisonburg, 5-1, 7-5, and 8-5. Last weekend,
Cornell is playing games in Virginia for the fifth consecutive season it has played, having faced VCU in 2019, Niagara in a three-game series in Colonial Heights, Va., in the COVID-shortened 2020 campaign, Virginia and Richmond in 2022, and James Madison, VCU, and George Mason last season.
Virginia is the most represented state on Cornell's roster this season (seven). Senior catcher
Braden Mack (Woodbridge), junior pitcher
Will Long (Great Falls), junior infielder
Max Jensen (Burke), sophomore pitchers
Ethan Hamill (Chester),
Carson Mayfield (Annandale), and
Asher Gardy (Springfield), and freshman pitcher
Ethan Van Sice (Arlington) all call the Old Dominion home.
LOOKING TO EXTEND THEIR STREAKS
Senior catcher
Nathan Waugh (12 games) and junior outfielder
Jakobi Davis (11 games) enter this weekend riding double-digit on-base streaks dating back to last season.
Davis is slashing .270/.386/.378 during his on-base streak, dating back to April 28, 2023, against Penn. The junior outfielder has two doubles and a triple in the stretch.
During Waugh's 12-game on-base streak, he has also registered at least one hit, making him the first Big Red player with a 12-game hit streak since former infielder Tommy Wagner had hit streaks of 12 and 13 games during the 2017 campaign. Wagner opened the 2017 slate with a 12-game hit streak, hitting for a .274 clip (14-of-51) before collecting base knocks in 13 consecutive games from April 5-23, where he registered a .490 average (24-of-49).
Should Waugh surpass Wagner's 13-game hit streak, he would have Cornell's longest hit streak since Marshall Yanzick (14 games) and Brian Billigen (16 games) in 2012. Yanzick opened the season with his 14-game hit streak, slashing .393/.443/.426 with two doubles and 14 RBI, while Billigen slashed .470/.527/.758 with five doubles, a triple, four home runs, and 16 RBI during his hit streak.
WHEN IT RUNS, IT POURS
Cornell has shown a knack for scoring runs in bundles this season, as 27 of its 36 runs have come in multi-run innings (75.0 percent of its run production).
Of the Big Red's 203 runs scored since the beginning of last season, 156 have come in innings that have featured at least two runs crossing home plate (74.6 percent of run production).
Since the beginning of the 2022 season, Cornell has had at least one multi-run inning in 60 of its 79 games (75.9 percent). At one point, Cornell scored at least two runs in 18 consecutive games from April 24, 2022 (final eight games of season) to March 18, 2023 (first 10 games of season).
Cornell has had seven multi-run innings through its first three weekends of play, highlighted by a season-high six-run inning last weekend in the opening game of the Big Red's doubleheader againt Georgetown at Capital One Park in Tysons, Va.
IVY LEAGUE PRESEASON POLL
The Ivy League preseason poll was announced on Feb. 19, with Penn pitted as the unanimous favorite following a vote of 16 panelists.
Columbia was picked second, finishing as the only other program to reach the century mark in points (101). Harvard (97 points) and Princeton (87 points) were the other anticipated programs to round out this year's four-team Ivy League Tournament field.
Yale was slotted to finish fifth behind its 66 points, while Cornell (37 points) and Brown (35 points) were separated by two points for sixth and seventh places. Dartmouth rounded out the eight-team league with 25 points.
WALK THIS WAY
Junior infielder
Max Jensen enters this weekend with a 0.50 strikeout-to-walk ratio, which is tied with Harvard's Ben Rounds for the best rate among Ivy League hitters, according to data compiled by D1Baseball.com. Jensen has drawn six walks comapred to three strikeouts across his 26 at-bats on the season.
Jensen's 16.7 percent walk rate (six walks in 36 plate appearances) is the fifth-best average by an Ivy League batter. Columbia's Hunter Snyder (28.1 percent — nine walks in 32 PAs) and Owen Estabrook (20.8 percent — five walks in 24 PAs), Princeton's Jake Bold (20.4 percent — 11 walks in 54 PAs), and Harvard's Ben Rounds (18.2 percent — eight walks in 44 PAs) have higher clips.
NOTHING EXTRA, PLEASE
Cornell has not played an extra-inning contest in any of its last 53 games, dating back to a 10-9 walk-off victory against Central New York rival Binghamton on April 20, 2022, at Hoy Field.
Saint Peter's is the only Division I program to have its last extra-inning contest later than the Big Red. The Peacocks have not played extra innings since May 8, 2021, when they played a pair of eight-inning contests against Monmouth on both ends of a scheduled seven-inning doubleheader.
Last season, Cornell was one of seven NCAA Division I programs not to play an extra-inning game, joined by Alabama A&M, East Tennessee State, Georgia Southern, Kansas State, Princeton, and Saint Peter's.
Cornell's lone contest last year that did not end in nine innings was the nightcap of an April 22 doubleheader against Princeton, 11-0, which was halted after seven innings due to rain.
Excluding the COVID-shortened 2020 season, last year's campaign was Cornell's first without any contests going to extra innings since 1997.
FAMILY MATTERS
Freshman infielder
Kevin Hager and freshman right-handed pitcher
Graham Biben are the younger brothers of former Cornell baseball alums.
Hager's older brother, Frank, was a member of the Cornell baseball team from 2009-12 before returning to his alma mater in 2016, where he served as a volunteer assistant coach for
Dan Pepicelli in his first year at the helm of the Cornell baseball program. Frank was elevated to assistant coach and recruiting coordinator the following year, aiding the program to a 21-17 record, and remained with the Big Red program until the conclusion of the 2022 campaign. While on staff, Frank also earned his master of professional studies from the Johnson Graduate School of Management in 2020.
Biben's older brother, August, graduated from Cornell last spring and was a member of the Big Red program from 2019-23. In addition to his brother, Graham's older sister, Dylan, is also currently enrolled at Cornell, which is also where his father, Matthew, and his grandfather also attended.
SCOUTING RICHMOND
Richmond is scheduled to conclude what ended up being a 19-game homestand to open the 2024 season this weekend.
After hosting its first 12 games of the season at Pitt Field, the Spiders' first scheduled road game against James Madison on March 6 was postponed.
The Spiders are one of 14 Division I baseball programs that have yet to play a road game, joining Arkansas, Auburn, California, Clemson, Coastal Carolina, College of Charleston, Houston, Kansas, Louisville, Mississippi State, Oregon State, Tennessee, and Vanderbilt. Of the 14 programs, only Coastal Carolina and the College of Charleston join Richmond in having all of their games so far on the season come on their home turf.
Aidan O'Keefe (.370/.438/.519), Jason Shockley (.346/.375/.538), Phil Bernstein (.339/.425/.484), and D.J. Pacheco (.326/.463/.558) all enter this weekend's series with batting averages above .320. Pacheco boasts the top on-base and slugging percentages, and has a Richmond-leading 1.021 OPS.
On the mound, Richmond has struck out 148 batters in 139 innings pitched, averaging out to a 9.58 strikeout-per-9-inning ratio. Kyle Roche has excelled on the rubber, striking out 22 batters in 25.1 innings of work and has yet to issue a walk. Despite his 1-3 record, Roche has a 2.13 ERA and a 0.95 WHIP (walks and hits per inning pitched).
85 YEARS, 435 MILES, 8 MEETINGS
This weekend will be the second time in the last three years in which Cornell and Richmond will be playing a three-game series. The last time the Big Red and Spiders squared off on the baseball diamond was from March 18-20, 2022, also at Pitt Field in Richmond, Va.
In the last meeting with the Spiders, Cornell prevented Richmond of claiming a three-game sweep as freshman outfielder
Jakobi Davis and junior
Wils Guy posted consecutive two-run hits to highlight a five-run ninth inning for Cornell in its 7-4 victory.
Cornell trailed 4-2 after eight innings before junior
Ryan Ross and freshman
Ryan Porter worked back-to-back walks, bringing the go-ahead run to the plate with no outs in the ninth.
Guy, who finished the day 3-for-4 with two RBI and a pair of stolen bases, padded the Big Red's lead with heads-up baserunning, scoring from third on a wild pitch that never got more than 20 feet from the plate.
Braden Mack earned the victory in relief, recording the final six outs — three via strikeout — while working around a pair of hits and a walk. Right-handed pitcher Luke Yacinich was solid in a no-decision, completing seven innings for the first time in his collegiate career.
Max Jensen cranked his first collegiate home run with a runner on in the fourth inning to tie the game at 2-all.
The only other victory for Cornell over Richmond came on March 26, 1968, in Fort Eustis, Va., 6-4, in a seven-inning contest. Jim Piersanti pitched the first six innings for the Big Red, while Bill Kunsman held the Spiders hitless in the final frame.
Cornell jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning behind an RBI double by Ed Mahoney and a two-run single by Hank Zale. The second Big Red run of the inning came after Chris Ritter reached on an error. Ritter drove in Cornell's next run in the third to up the Big Red's lead to 5-1 before it took a 6-3 lead in the fifth behind an RBI double by Lou Verdi.
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