PHILADELPHIA – It's a busy weekend for the University of Pennsylvania baseball team, returning home for the first time in the month of April in a crucial Ivy League battle against Cornell at Tommy Lasorda Field at Meiklejohn Stadium.
 
Saturday is Penn's Alumni Day, welcoming back generations of Quaker ballplayers to University City. The first 100 fans will receive a free Penn Baseball print to commemorate the 2024 season.
 
On Sunday, the Quakers will put on their Vs. Cancer Game, in a team effort with the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation to support the fight against cancer.
 
This weekend's series is a matchup against the Ivy League's second and third-place teams, two squads very much in the thick of a fight for a spot in the Ivy League Tournament.
 
GAME 29-31: Penn (13-15, 5-4 Ivy) vs. Cornell (8-12, 6-3 Ivy)
April 13-14 | Watch (ESPN+) | Live Stats – Game 1, Game 2, Game 3 | Program (PDF)
 
A TLFAMJS Homecoming
The Quakers are back at Tommy Lasorda Field this weekend for the first time since the end of March, to begin a four-game homestand before heading back out onto the road for almost the remainder of the regular season.
 
Penn went 7-2 at home in March, beating Villanova and taking a series against Lafayette before topping Lehigh and sweeping Brown to open Ancient Eight play.
 
Vs. Cancer Game
The organization that Penn is partnering with this weekend was started by a pediatric brain cancer survivor and former collegiate athlete. Vs. Cancer makes it easy for any sports team, any athlete, and any community to help kids with cancer. As a signature fundraising program of the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation, Vs. Cancer proceeds fund family support and child life programs in teams' communities, along with lifesaving pediatric brain cancer research.
 
Milestone Watch For Henseler
Ivy League career home run record? Check. Ivy League career RBI record? Check. Wyatt Henseler set his second Ivy record on Wednesday afternoon at Villanova, breaking the all-time RBI mark with Nos. 165 and 166 on a two-run home run. He snapped a 19-year-old RBI record, previously held by Brown's Matt Kutler '05 at 164. Henseler also has the conference's all-time home run mark, currently at 46 for his career.
 
Speaking of, he's cruising closer to another pretty important milestone, currently sitting at 196 hits. Henseler is four from becoming just the third Penn Quaker to reach the 200-hit plateau and is just eight hits from tying, nine from becoming the program's all-time leader in hits with 205.
 
Team and Individual Highs
Heading into the weekend as a team, Penn is currently tops in the Ivy in batting (.283), at bats (979), hits (277), on-base percentage (.384), and putouts (718). Individually, Henseler leads the conference in homers (14), slugging (.806), runs scored (32), and OPS (1.250), while Davis Baker has the Ivy lead in hits (40) and triples (3).
 
At The Plate
*Despite recording just five hits at the dish against Villanova on Wednesday in a losing effort, the Quakers remain the Ivy League's best hitting team with an average of .283.
 
*Nick Spaventa leads Penn with an average of .337 but has missed three consecutive games. Henseler is quickly trying to overtake the team lead with a mark of .333 after registering at least two hits in five of his last six games. Baker (.336) leads the team and conference in hits with 40 to go along with his team-high nine doubles and three triples.
 
*Connor Chavez has also been out his last two games, currently on a team-best eight-game hitting streak and a reached-base streak of 22 consecutive games. Three Quakers—Gavin Collins (16), Wyatt Henseler (13), and Carson Ozmer (11)—have reached safely in 10 or more games in a row, joining Chavez.
 
*In addition to his Ivy lead in home runs (14), Henseler also paces the conference in slugging percentage (.806), 117 points higher than his career average (.689). That's also good enough for the 19th-best mark in NCAA Division I baseball. In terms of homers, Henseler ranks 14th nationally for that category too, eight off the leader, Georgia's Charlie Condon with 23.
 
On The Mound
*Despite the defeat, Penn's pitching staff held Villanova to just five runs on five hits Wednesday and continues to lower its ERA to 6.84 through 28 games. The mark is second in the Ivy League behind Yale (4.73).
 
*Penn has thrown a conference-best 274 strikeouts as a staff this season, led in part by senior ace Cole Zaffiro (3-3, 4.91 ERA), who leads the team with 46 Ks, ranked third in the Ivy.
 
*Carson Ozmer (1-0, 2.82) and Eli Trop (2-1, 3.07) continue their vise grips atop the team's leaderboard in earned run average, continuing strong senior campaigns as primary bullpen arms.
 
Scouting Cornell
*The Big Red have been the surprise of the season in the Ivy League so far this season, springing up from their preseason poll ranking of No. 6 to a second-place showing through the first three series of conference play. Cornell is 6-3 following a series win at Harvard over the weekend, also owning a series victory over Dartmouth.
 
*Cornell is posting the third-best batting average (.276) in the Ivy behind Penn and Columbia and is led by a slew of hitters batting above .300 this year. Caden Wildman (.346), John Quinlan (.344), Max Jensen (.314), Nathan Waugh (.313), Braden Mack (.308), Owen Carlson (.304), and Mark Quatrani (.300) are all hitting above that mark.
 
*Quatrani leads the team in homers with six, added 18 RBIs, while Nathan Waugh leads program in RBIs with 21.
 
*Big Red pitching is allowing 7.17 runs per game this season and is bolstered by pitchers Noah Keller (0-2, 3.97), Ethan Hamill (2-1, 4.36), and Huxley Holcomb (1-2, 6.65). Carson Mayfield (2-2, 8.01) has a team-high 23 strikeouts.
 
Series History
Penn and Cornell are matching up for the 288th, 289th, and 290th times this weekend with the Quakers holding a 164-121-2 edge in the all-time series.
 
The Quakers are 87-52-2 against the Big Red at home and have won five of the last six games against the team dating back to the beginning of the 2022 season.
 
Follow The Action
All three games this weekend will be streamed live on ESPN+ with live stats provided.
 
For the latest on Penn baseball, follow @PennBaseball on X (formerly Twitter), @Penn_Baseball on Instagram, and on the web at PennAthletics.com.