On the baseball team, junior returning starter Dom Di Ricco is known as “Little Guy,” not for his physical size but for his home run-lacking style at the plate.

“This fall, when we would take batting practice, we would have silent competitions between [sophomore] Nate David and I,” Di Ricco said. “[David] refers to himself as Baby Bash … and I’m just Little Guy. … I tried to add a little power [in the offseason], but that didn’t work too well. I’m just a scrappy leadoff hitter. I love it. I get dirty every game, trying to slide everywhere.”

It’s fall 2005, and the men’s lacrosse team has just finished practice. Head coach Jeff Tambroni is addressing his squad before sending them home for the day. Tambroni, ever the coach who loves hard-working, scrappy players, points out to his team how hard one freshman worked during that day’s practice. That freshman was Matt Moyer.

“There were certain days that we as a coaching staff would point him out as being the symbolic leader of our team,” Tambroni said. “He would still come back the next day and feel like he needed to do it all over again.”

To Moyer, it probably just seemed natural to come out and work hard every day. But one can tell from the way he talks about it that Tambroni will never forget the first impression that Moyer made on him.

Sophomore pitcher Tony Bertucci’s given name is actually Don Antony, but the biggest thing the Cornell hurler has in common with a Mafia mastermind is the Family emphasis — and, in Bertucci’s case, baseball is a prominent part of the family legacy.

“[I started playing baseball] in the backyard with my dad and my grandpa, just learning the game,” he said. “It goes back pretty deep in my family, so [there’s] a lot of pride as far as baseball’s concerned.”

Baseball is in the Bertucci blood. The Cornell pitcher’s older brother played one year at Notre Dame, while his younger brother is a sophomore on his high school team. All three brothers have answered to the same nickname in their baseball careers based on the family name, “Tuch.”

Last year as a junior, Charlotte Schmidlapp emerged as one of the leaders both on and off the field for the women’s lacrosse team. By notching 14 goals, adding 5 assists and winning 35 draw controls in her 2007 season that was somewhat shortened by injuries, she established herself as one of the Red’s most dominant players. The combination of that offensive prowess and intensity with great communication made Schmidlapp, now a senior, a natural choice to be named one of the team’s co-captains this year.

The golf team is halfway through its season, but after nearly a five-month layoff since its last competitive match back in October, there is no doubt that the team is feeling a sense of a new season.

“[Starting back up in the spring] basically feels like a fresh start,” said sophomore C.J. Karrer. “It takes a few weeks to get back into the swing of things.”

The Ithaca weather does not allow for too much outdoor practice, but the installation of a new golf simulator, along with a week-long trip to Orlando, Fla., has allowed the players to get in good practice and stay on top of their game throughout the winter offseason.

The women’s lacrosse team enters the 2008 season coming off of last year’s campaign that saw the team play to a 5-10 record in defense of its 2006 Ivy League Championship. Led by coach Jenny Graap ’86, this year’s squad is looking for a return to glory and has set ambitious goals for itself.

“The players set goals about effort and intensity — kind of commitment type things,” Graap said. “We didn’t want to overlook any of the real foundation principles. They were careful to set goals that they should be focusing on every day, as well as goals for winning the Ivy League and advancing to the postseason.”

In the corner of men’s lacrosse head coach Jeff Tambroni’s office sits a trophy that reads “2007 NCAA Lacrosse Semifinalist.” The trophy only tells part of the story, though. Only Duke’s last-second goal separated Cornell from a trip to the NCAA final against Johns Hopkins. That goal also put the end to the careers of five Cornell All-Americans. The Red lost its main goal-scorer, its offensive quarterback, its defensive stalwart and its four-year starting goalie. But like every year, the system remains the same as new faces fill in the roles.

Defense

If past performance is any indication, the women’s track team has a talented team this year. With recent strong performances and NCAA Regional qualifiers at the California State Northridge Invitational, the UC Irvine Classic and the Indoor Heptagonal Championships in March alone, this year’s standouts are looking to build on success earlier in the year.

In the 800, sophomore Katie Murdoch has been establishing herself as a real force for the women. With strong showings earlier in the year, Murdoch is a young, growing talent. Dealing with injuries in her freshman season, Murdoch still bounced back as a top performer to earn All-East honors in the outdoor season, while running the lead-off spot for a record 4x800 time for the freshmen in 2007.

The good news is that the baseball team improved both its overall and Ivy League record last year. The bad news is the team still finished in the cellar of the Ivy League’s Gehrig Division. However, this season the Red (6-8) welcomes a promising class of newcomers to join a solid core of veterans as the team vies for its second Ancient Eight title in the last four years.

Catchers

The spring track season is here: packed with more natural skill and talent than in recent memory, the men’s track team is setting its sights on a memorable finish to the year in these last three months.

Starting in March, the men boasted several NCAA and IC4A regional qualifiers, boosting their status as one of the elite varsity teams this year on campus and in Cornell history.

March seems to be promising: starting the month at the Heptagonal championships in Ithaca, N.Y., the men dominated the rest of the Ivy League conference competition, taking a 205-point victory and beating out second-place Princeton by 56 points. The Red won on the strength of nine event wins, seven second-place finishes and three NCAA qualifiers.