ITHACA, N.Y. — The Cornell baseball team (1-2) continues its season-opening 15-game road swing this weekend when it travels to Baltimore, Md., for a three-game series against UMBC (0-3) at Varsity Field.

All three games will be streamed live on AmericaEast.tv with Sebastian Maric providing play-by-play throughout the series.

Cornell (1-2, 0-0 Ivy League) at UMBC (0-3, 0-0 AEC)
When	March 1-2
Where	Baltimore, Md. // Varsity Field
Watch	Saturday | Sunday
Radio	None
Live Stats	Saturday | Sunday
Notes	Cornell | UMBC

 

Probable Starting Pitchers
Day	Cornell		UMBC
Sat. 12 p.m. ET	RHP Carson Mayfield (1-0, 0.00 ERA)		RHP Zach Robinson (0-1, 15.00 ERA)
Sat. 3 p.m. ET	LHP Noah Keller (0-1, 16.87 ERA)		LHP Brady Fox (0-0, 0.00 ERA)
Sun. 12 p.m. ET	RHP Chris Ellison (0-1, 8.31 ERA)		RHP Sergio Droz (0-1, 4.50 ERA)

PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Sophomore infielder Kevin Hager and junior right-handed pitcher Carson Mayfield both earned weekly awards from the Ivy League, the conference office announced this past Monday morning.

Following his stellar performance on the mound in Cornell baseball's season-opening upset of No. 17-ranked Duke, Mayfield was named the Ancient Eight's Pitcher of the Week after hurling six no-hit innings for the Big Red en route to its 11-8 victory over the Blue Devils at Jack Coombs Field last Friday, facing one batter over the minimum, issuing two walks and striking out a pair of Blue Devils hitters.

Mayfield was the first Big Red pitcher to garner Pitcher of the Week honors since Luke Yacinich on May 9, 2022. Yacinich registered two victories for the Big Red across 10 scoreless innings of work, pitching a perfect inning of relief at Binghamton and tossing a complete-game, six-hit shutout over Brown.

Hager was named Player of the Week after finishing the weekend tied for the team lead in batting average (.500), going 3-for-6 at the plate with a home run and two RBI, while concluding the weekend leading the Big Red in runs (4), slugging percentage (1.000), and OPS (1.636).

In the season-opening upset win, Hager hit a leadoff home run in the third inning, which put Cornell ahead for good as it never trailed for the remainder of the contest.

FLAWLESS BASEBALL
Cornell did not commit an error across its 108 fielding opportunities last weekend against Duke, marking the first time on record in program history since 1885 that it did not have an error over its first three games in a season.

Over the 139 seasons in which data is available, the Big Red had previously only had nine instances where it played errorless baseball in its first two games of a season (1908, 1943, 1985, 1986, 1989, 2007, 2009, and 2013). Cornell also did not commit any errors in two of its first three games to begin a season on 14 occasions, also joining the 1909, 1927, 1963, 2004, and 2008 squads. 

After not committing an error last weekend, it marked the sixth time in program history (since 1885) that the Big Red had committed one error or less over its first three games (1943, 2004, 2007, 2008, and 2013).

Entering this weekend, Cornell remains the lone Division I baseball program that has yet to commit an error this season. Mount St. Mary's (seven games) and Rider (three games) have the second-fewest errors this season, having just one error to their credit as of Thursday morning.

FIRST TIME FOR EVERYTHING
This weekend's three-game series against UMBC marks the first time that the Big Red and Retrievers are facing each other on the baseball diamond.

Across the Big Red's next four games, Cornell will be squaring off against three opponents for the first time: UMBC, UAB, and Winthrop. The contests against UAB and Winthrop will serve as the Big Red's final two games of the First Pitch Invitational, hosted by Michigan State in Greenville, S.C. Next Sunday's game with Winthrop will be held at the Eagles' on-campus facility in Rock Hill, S.C.

LOOK AT WHO'S BACK
Cornell returns 14 of its 17 hitters who registered at least one at-bat last season. Over 76 percent of the Big Red's offense returns from last year, which includes its top three hitters — all of which were First Team All-Ivy honorees in 2024 — in senior outfielder John Quinlan (.378), sophomore catcher Mark Quatrani (.362), and senior infielder Max Jensen (.358).  Junior outfielder Caden Wildman (.279) and senior outfielder Jakobi Davis (.265) also return in 2025, marking five of the Big Red's top six hitters from a year ago back in this year's lineup.

Moving to the mound, Cornell is bringing back over 80 percent of its appearances from last season and 87 percent of its innings pitched, including team-leader junior right-hander Ethan Hamill (58.2 IP).

The Big Red returns all but one of their 38 starts from last season, including Hamill (nine starts), juniors Noah Keller and Carson Mayfield (eight starts), senior William Jaun (six starts), and sophomore Huxley Holcombe (three starts).

IVY LEAGUE PRESEASON POLL
The Ivy League preseason poll was announced this past Monday with Columbia pitted as the unanimous favorite following a vote of two representatives from each of the eight Ivy League programs (16 total voters).

Penn was picked to finish second, serving as the lone other Ancient Eight program to recveive over 100 points. Cornell was tabbed third while Princeton was selected to finish fourth, rounding out the projected second annual Ivy League Tournament, which will be held at the No. 1 seed.

Yale (69 points) and Harvard (59 points) were picked to finish fifth and sixth, respectively, while Dartmouth (30 points) and Brown (21 points) rounded out the final two spots.

Cornell's third-place projection is the program's highest preseason ranking in the annual Ivy League's preseason poll since its inception in 2018.

QUATRANI HONORED BY D1BASEBALL
Sophomore catcher Mark Quatrani was honored by D1Baseball.com with preseason honors, being selected as one of the top 50 catchers in Division I baseball on Jan. 28.

Quatrani, fresh off being named the Ivy League's Rookie of the Year last year, came in ranked at No. 39 on the list after posting a .362 batting average in his first year with the Big Red. Paired with his batting average, Quatrani registered a 1.206 OPS (.492 on-base percentage and .714 slugging percentage) after blasting 11 home runs and driving in 43 runs, both figures serving as team-highs.

Among the 50 players named to the preseason list, Quatrani was the lone representative from the Ivy League and one of 12 sophomores honored, three of which were redshirt sophomores. Quatrani was one of 18 non-Power Four catchers named to the list

Of the 49 players that played college baseball last season, Quatrani had the highest OPS (1.206) of any player named to the list, with his figure being 31 points higher than Virginia's Jacob Ference (1.175). Quatrani also had the third-highest batting average of those named, trailing Bowling Green sophomore Garrett Wright (.380) and Oklahoma junior Easton Carmichael (.366).

STARTING OFF STRONG
Sophomore catcher Mark Quatrani had one of the highest batting averages by a freshman in Cornell program history last season.

Since freshmen were first eligible to play for the Big Red beginning with the 1976 season, Quatrani's .366 batting average last year ranked as the third-highest by a first-year player in program history, with a minimum of 80 at-bats, only trailing Brian Billigen (.404 in 2009) and Terry Birrer (.379 in 1982).

Quatrani became one of five players to have hit at least .360 in their first collegiate season with the Big Red, joining Billigen, Birrer, former Big Red infielder and head coach Bill Walkenbach (.363 in 1995), and infielder Andrew Luria (.363 in 1999).

WHEN IT RUNS, IT POURS
Cornell scored 270 runs across its 38 games last season, computing to a 7.11 runs per game average, ranking 117th nationally.

The Big Red's 7.11 runs per game average was its highest clip in a single season since 1901, when Cornell scored 180 runs in 24 games (7.50 runs per game). Last year's average also ranked as the fourth-highest scoring year in Cornell history with at least 20 games played.

Last season's 270 runs scored was the 31st time in Cornell's 153-year history of the baseball program that it scored at least 200 runs in a season. The 270 runs were the third-most by the Big Red in a single season and was its highest run total since scoring a program-record 279 times in 2012, Cornell's last time it appeared in the NCAA Tournament.

Last year, Cornell displayed a knack for scoring runs in bundles, as 225 of its 270 runs came in multi-run innings (83.3 percent of its run production).

The Big Red had 66 multi-run innings in 2024 and had registered at least one inning with two-plus runs in 33 of its 38 games played (86.8 percent). Since the beginning of the 2022 season, Cornell has had at least one multi-run inning in 90 of its 112 games (80.4 percent), which includes 10 of its last 11 contests.

SCOUTING UMBC
UMBC is entering this weekend's series with a 1-3 overall record, fresh off a 5-4 victory over its nearby rival Towson at John B. Schuerholz Park on Wednesday afternoon.

Danny Orr paced the Retrievers' offense with a 3-for-4 day at the plate with a double and RBI. Nico Ong drove in a pair of runs for UMBC with a two-RBI single that capped a three-run second inning, which ultimated gave the Retrievers the lead for good.

Emmett Tolis was the winning pitcher for UMBC, striking out five out of eight batters he faced in a flawless 2.2 innings of work. Nick Remy picked up the save for the Retrievers, pitching a scoreless ninth inning. 

Ong leads UMBC in numerous offensive categories, including batting average (.400), on-base percentage (.571), walks (4), and .971 OPS (.571 on-base percentage, .400 slugging percentage). Ong is tied with Luke Buscaglia and Jesiah Carpenter for the team lead in RBI (2). Orr is right behind Ong with his .333 average and an .842 OPS (.375 on-base percentage, .467 slugging percentage), while leading the team in extra-base hits with two doubles.

UMBC'S WEEKEND REWIND
Last weekend, UMBC was swept in a trio of games played at Stetson in DeLand, Fla. The Retrievers were run-ruled in the first two games on the weekend, falling to the host Hatters, 11-1, and Notre Dame, 12-2, both in eight innings. Concluding the weekend, Iowa used three pitchers to combine for a two-hit shutout.

Freshman southpaw Brady Fox (0-0, 0.00 ERA) allowed just one hit over three innings of work despite issuing five walks against Notre Dame last Saturday. Sophomore right-hander Zach Robinson (0-1, 15.00 ERA) opened the weekend allowing six runs (five earned) on six hits in three innings of work against Stetson. He walked one and did not record a strikeout. Fellow first-year right-hander Sergio Droz (0-1, 4.50 ERA) pitched four innings against Iowa, yielding two runs on four hits while fanning three and did not issue any free passes.

1 YEAR, 584 MILES, 0 MEETINGS
Cornell is facing UMBC for the first time this weekend. The Big Red has a 27-19-2 all-time record against current America East programs, highlighted by its 19-15-1 mark against its geographic rival in Binghamton.

The Big Red is playing an America East opponent that isn't Binghamton for the first time since 2015, when it defeated Hartford on Feb. 28, 4-3, in Myrtle Beach, S.C., and fell to Maine on March 14, 13-9, in Auburndale, Fla.

This weekend will be the first time Cornell is playing a true road game against an America East opponent since traveling to UAlbany for a doubleheader on March 27, 2012, where the Big Red posted a 5-2 victory in nine innings in the opener before playing to a 3-3 tie in the nightcap as darkness halted the game after six innings.