Earlier this week, inclement weather caused the softball team’s series at Siena (12-11, 0-2 MAAC) scheduled for Tuesday to be moved to Wednesday, but later it was cancelled altogether. Despite this, Cornell (4-16, 1-3 Ivy) will move on to play doubleheaders against Brown (13-10, 2-2) and Yale (9-19, 2-2) this weekend on the road.
“We were frustrated with the Siena cancellation,” said senior catcher Leanne Iannucci. “We look forward to mid-week non-conference games to work on things in an actual game format before we have to play another Ivy League team again. Unfortunately, bad weather happens in upstate New York, and cancellations have happened to us before. All it means is that we just have to focus that much more during practice for the rest of the week.”
Head coach Julie Farlow ’97 jokingly called the up-and-down weather conditions around this time of year “Ithacating.” She added that that giving players that had missed time in-game reps to get them back up to speed would have been optimal.
“We would have liked to have played,” she said. “We had some players who weren’t healthy.”
Cornell plays two games against each of the North Division Ivy teams before playing four games against their three fellow South Divisioners. This weekend will be the last one against North Division schools.
With Brown, Farlow expects to see a team that is hitting well and riding high. Brown is over .500 on the season and they had a strong pre-conference season this March.
“We are going to see an athletic team that’s hitting the ball very well,” she said. “I think they’re feeling pretty good.”
Farlow also praised Brown’s play on both sides of the ball.
“They’re leading the league in hitting,” she said. “Their pitching staff is an experienced pitching staff.”
After Brown, Cornell travels on to New Haven. The Bulldogs do not have the same record as the Bears, but Farlow and Iannucci are anticipating a capable opponent, citing their consistency at the plate, Farlow noted.
“Both Yale and Brown will be tough competitors, independent of their individual win-loss percentages,” Iannucci said. “We just need to make sure that we are playing sharp if we want to be successful against them.”
The Red’s corps will be enhanced this weekend by the return of previously injured players, including one of three pitchers, sophomore Sierra Stone. Stone last pitched on March 29 against George Washington, but did not play against Dartmouth and Harvard last weekend because of her injury.
“I’m excited because Sierra is back and healthy,” Farlow said.
Cornell’s preparation for the upcoming games has been indoors for the early part of the week due to the weather. Farlow said indoor practices lend themselves better to focusing on hitting, and that getting outside would allow the team to focus on other aspects of their game.
Farlow joked that the team should have taken advantage of the weather in January and February and practiced outside then, but the team still has no fear of the forthcoming cold.
“We’re so used to it, it’s not really a problem,” Farlow said.