Cornell baseball caps off the 2010 regular season today against Ithaca College in a 4 p.m. game at Hoy Field. The Red (17-20, 9-11 Ivy) hosts its local rival after closing up Ivy League play over the weekend with a split against Princeton, falling five games short of making the playoffs. The Bombers (16-15) enter today’s match-up after splitting a doubleheader yesterday afternoon with St. John Fisher in Rochester, N.Y. Cornell saw its post-season hopes come to an end two weeks ago when it only managed a split of a four-game doubleheader against Columbia. The Lions wound up winning the Gehrig Division by four games over Penn, and will host Dartmouth — the Red Rolfe Division winner — in the Ivy League Championship Series beginning Saturday. Junior first baseman Mickey Brodsky enters today’s game leading the Red in batting average (.375), alongside a homerun and 18 RBI’s. Brodsky also led the team in on-base percentage (.473) and was third on the club with a .500 slugging percentage. Senior center fielder Nate David was the only other Cornell player to reach the .300 batting average mark, and tied sophomore right fielder Brian Billigen and senior left fielder Kyle Groth with five homeruns on the season. Billigen compiled an impressive slash line of .292/.388/.531 and led the team in total bases with 69, while Groth drove in 14 runs and slugged .489 in his final season with the Red. Pitching has been a strong point for the Red, led by senior closer Dave Rochefort. The stopper has compiled a microscopic 0.69 ERA alongside four wins and three saves in his senior season, and struck out 24 batters in just 26 innings pitched. Senior Tony Bertucci and junior Corey Pappel led the team’s starting rotation. Bertucci compiled a 3-2 record alongside an impressive 2.62 ERA in 44.2 innings of work, while Pappel struck out nearly a batter per inning — 46 in 47 innings pitched — to win two games and finish the season with a 3.26 ERA. Today’s matchup against the Bombers will feature an I.C. team which has five players hitting over the .300 mark, including third baseman David Ahonen, who enters the game with a .377 batting average on two homeruns and 27 RBI’s — all of which lead the team. First baseman Trevor Wolf and outfielder T.J. Abone are second on the club with each player compiling two homeruns and 24 RBI’s on the season. On the mound, reliever Tucker Healy has been impressive to the tune of a 1.32 ERA, while starter Tom Fishback has made the most of his 10 starts, going 7-2 with a 2.36 ERA. The Bombers’ starter has struck out 45 batters in 68.2 innings of work.
Original Author: Evan Rich