“Any conference game has a lot of added emotion, but any game against Cornell has even more emotion,” Alexander said.

After seeing the squad in the Ivy Championship in back-to-back years, the Crimson won’t be fooled into complacency by the Big Red’s current 9-10 record. Cornell is 3-2 in its last five games as its bats have caught fire. The team is collectively hitting nearly .350 over the stretch.

Many of the Big Red’s struggles can be pinned on a pitching staff that has surrendered seven runs in six of its early-season contests. Without ace Elizabeth Dalrymple, who graduated last spring, to anchor the group, four pitchers have started games with limited success. No matter who is pitching Friday, Cornell will play tough at home. It has posted a 56-12 record in Ithaca over the last four years in advance of the 2012 home opener Friday.

After Friday’s doubleheader, Harvard will travel to Princeton (3-16) for two more games on the following day. And, while Brown admitted that the four-game weekends can be both physically and mentally exhausting, Alexander said that the adrenaline can be relied upon to keep the team performing at an elite level.

“The added emotion in the game helps you to not get fatigued,” Alexander said. “You are running on the emotion that goes into a conference game.”

—Staff writer Jacob D. H. Feldman can be reached at jacobfeldman@college.harvard.edu.