The baseball team split a four-game weekend series with Columbia, eliminating any shot of another Ivy League Gehrig Division title. Cornell takes on Binghamton this afternoon.

In baseball, it’s usually three strikes and you’re out; however Cornell’s team will take a fourth swing at opening its season this afternoon. The Red had three games scheduled in Philadelphia this past weekend, any of which would have been the team’s season opener, but all of the games were rained out.

Tonight will be an eventful night for the men’s soccer team; not only will the players be celebrating International Student Day — an event planned in honor of the team’s six represented countries — but they will also be returning to their home turf to face off against local rival Binghamton.

There is no doubt that Binghamton (3-3-0) will prove to be quite the challenge. With a young roster and a solid defensive line, the Bearcats will definitely be putting the Red (3-2-1) to the test.

“We’ve got a challenging opponent coming up,” said head coach Jaro Zawislan. “They’ve always been in or on the verge of making the NCAA playoffs, so our team has to be ready from the first minute on.”

The women’s soccer team could not utilize its home field advantage and went without a win this weekend, earning instead a scoreless tie against Binghamton on Friday and a 3-1 loss to Niagara on Sunday.

“I thought we played good soccer but it was disappointing because we made some rookie mistakes that caused us to give up goals. We really showed inexperience,” said head coach Danielle LaRoche.

The women’s soccer team starts off its season this weekend, playing host to Binghamton today, and then traveling to face Niagara on Sunday.

“We are just excited to play,” said junior co-captain Lena Russomagno. “After preseason, after practicing a lot, we are just excited to get out there and show what we’ve got and show what we’ve been doing in practice.”

The Red’s first matchup will be against Binghamton, a team that’s coming off a pair of losses last weekend at Delaware and Saint Joseph’s. Binghamton edges out Cornell in the series between the teams, 1-0-1, and tied Cornell the last time the two teams met, back in 2004.

The baseball team will need a short memory and some long underwear for today’s game. The Red (4-16, 2-6 Ivy) will host the Binghamton Bearcats (9-10). Cornell will try to move past the disappointment of last weekend, which saw the team lose four crucial games to conference foes. In order for the Red to have a chance to break its losing streak, the weather must give the team a chance to play. Ithaca is expected to see snow and temperatures in the 30s today.

“We have a pretty good chance of playing tomorrow, especially with the turf field,” said senior shortstop Scott Hardinger. “Assuming that there’s no snow or heavy rain, we should be able to play.”

Cold weather is nothing new to the Red.

The shooting in Binghamton that left the small city reeling in its wake has a connection to the neighboring Cornell community.

Teacher Roberta King, who was killed inside the  American Civic Association while substituting for an English as a Second Language class, left behind 17 grandchildren, including Ilisa Naukam ‘09. King was the mother of 10 children, five of whom went to Cornell, according to the Associated Press.

The No. 7/6 men’s lacrosse team will open its 2009 season tomorrow at noon against Binghamton. The Red has taken on the Bearcats five times and holds a 5-0 edge against the team, but this will be the first game between the two held at Binghamton rather than Schoellkopf Field.

The Red finished last season 11-4 and returns four preseason all-Americans — John Glynn, Matt Moyer, Max Seibald and Ryan Hurley. Expectations for the team are set high this season — Inside Lacrosse picked the Red to finish fourth in the country and first in the Ivy League in its preseason media poll. Head coach Jeff Tambroni has a record of 84-30 in his eight seasons at Cornell.

Not even the blistering cold winds could cool off the fiery Binghamton attack last night at Newman Arena as the Bearcats dropped Cornell, 25-17, 25-23, 25-19. Binghamton has been victorious in seven of its last eight matches, and was led by sophomore hitter Michelle McDonough, who recorded 17 kills, eight digs and four blocks.

“I thought [Binghamton] ran a pretty fast offense and they really [handled] our blocks,” said head coach Deitre Collins-Parker. “That really hurt us because blocking is something that we used to do pretty well. As a coach, I need to make some changes [starting with] our blocking scheme. It’s been a trend over the last couple of games and one of the assistant coaches brought it to my attention that maybe what we’re doing doesn’t work well for us.”