March 30, 2007

NEW HAVEN, Conn.--For all intents and purposes, the season starts now. Despite their early season struggles, the Bulldogs have a clean slate entering the start of Ivy League play. Yale's 6-13 overall record will be rendered effectively irrelevant if the Bulldogs get off to a good start this weekend, as the team hits the road for its first two Ivy League doubleheaders. Yale heads to Cornell for two games on Saturday, then visits defending League champion Princeton for a doubleheader on Sunday.

The Bulldogs dropped their home opener, 18-7 to Connecticut on Wednesday. Ryan Lavarnway, the winner of the last two Ivy League Player of the Week awards, has a hit in every game this season (19 straight) and has a .462 batting average. Lavarnway leads the Ivy League with 36 hits, six home runs, and 27 RBIs. Josh Cox is batting .391 and Marc Sawyer has a .378 batting average. As a team, the Bulldogs are hitting .312 and scoring 6.8 runs on 11.3 hits per game. Stefan Schropp leads the pitching staff with a 2-1 record and 4.50 ERA. He has 20 strikeouts in 22 innings.

Cornell (6-10) opens its home schedule at the newly renovated Hoy Field on Saturday. The ballpark has a new FieldTurf playing surface similar to the one Yale played on last weekend at Navy. The Big Red dropped two out of three against Army last weekend. Domenic Di Riccio leads Cornell with a .339 batting average, but the team is hitting just .263 as a unit. Brian Kaufman provides the power with three home runs and 17 RBIs. On the mound, Jim Hyland has three complete games in four starts. He tossed a 2-0 shutout last weekend for the Big Red's only win in the Army series. Hyland is 2-2 with a 3.20 ERA.

Princeton (4-11) won the Gehrig Division and shocked Harvard to advance to the NCAA Tournament last season. The Tigers have lost four of their last five heading into the weekend. Sal Iacono leads the Tigers with a .417 batting average and 14 RBIs. Greg Van Horn is batting at a .396 clip and has scored a team-leading 15 runs. Jack Murphy has three home runs. Steven Miller has made four starts on the mound, and has a 3.50 ERA and 16 strikeouts in 18 innings. Princeton's home field also has a new look this season; the fences at Clarke Field have been moved in.

Last season in New Haven, the Bulldogs won three of four games with this weekend's opponents. Yale swept the doubleheader with the Big Red, 7-0 and 5-4 (in 10 innings), and split the two games with Princeton, winning the opener 4-3 and dropping the nightcap 5-3. The doubleheaders begin at 12 p.m. on both days.

Report filed by Joe Clifford, Yale Sports Publicity