Hitting struggles continue for Softball in losses at Delaware

The Quakers led the No. 7 team in the Northeast early, but lost both games of the doubleheader. For the Penn softball team and sophomore third baseman Jen Moore, it was business as usual when the Quakers traveled to Delaware to play the talented Blue Hens. Penn's offensive struggles of late continued on Wednesday as Delaware took two straight from the Quakers, 4-2 and 7-1. Penn's total of three runs means that the Quakers have scored an anemic total of 21 runs in their last 13 games. Over that same period, Penn has been shut out four times. Moore, who has led the Quakers in batting throughout the season, bucked Penn's offensive trend, collecting two more hits yesterday to raise her season total to 44 and tie the Penn single-season record with three games remaining on the schedule. "The first game was definitely within our reach," Moore said. "We came out hot and then just died. In the second game, we just weren't hitting the ball, and we weren't aggressive at the plate." Moore has undoubtedly been Penn's most solid offensive performer throughout the 2000 campaign. Moore is the only member of the Quakers batting above .300 and currently sits at .347. "I didn't even know that I had tied the Penn record for hits," Moore said. "That's a pretty nice accomplishment, but it doesn't change the fact that we lost two more games." Penn appeared poised to knock off the powerful Blue Hens, ranked No. 7 in the Northeast, when the Quakers jumped out to 2-0 lead in the first. Moore doubled in Clarisa Apostol and then later scored herself on a throwing error. Becky Ranta pitched extremely well early on, holding Delaware to only three hits through the first four innings. Delaware was finally able to get on the board in the fifth when it scored two runs to knot the game at 2-2. Delaware took the lead for good in the sixth inning when Amanda Cariello smacked a clutch two-out double off of Penn freshman hurler Dina Parise that scored two runs. "We scored all of our runs early on and just couldn't seem to get it going after that," Moore said. "We got a couple of base runners on, but it was all to no avail because we just couldn't hit them in." The nightcap wasn't nearly as competitive. Delaware made it clear from the start that this was its game by scoring four runs in the first. Penn scored its only run of the night in the third inning when Heidi Albrecht singled home fellow freshman Crista Farrell. Albrecht's infield RBI single was one of only three Penn hits in six innings against Delaware pitcher Susan Dugan, who stymied the Red and Blue batters and took the win to raise her record to an impressive 16-2. "We've struggled a lot in the second games of doubleheaders this year," Moore said. "Today was the same old story. We just died in the second game." Since March 26, Penn is a meager 1-9-1 in the second games of twin bills. The Quakers' lone nightcap win came on April 5 in a doubleheader sweep of Lehigh on the road. Penn has been held to one run or been shut out in all six of its doubleheader cappers since that 11-8 victory over the Engineers. The Quakers, who stand at a disappointing 13-27-1 on the year, have played their last non-conference game of the year. Penn has a doubleheader against Dartmouth and make-up game against Harvard this weekend. Penn was originally scheduled to face St. Joseph's and Wagner on the road on April 28 and 30, respectively, but last weekend's Ivy League rainouts forced the Quakers to cancel those non-league contests against the Hawks and Seahawks. The Harvard game has been moved to the campus of Yale, but Penn will still play a double dip in New Hampshire as originally planned against Dartmouth. The Red and Blue, who have lost 11 out of their last 13 games overall, will have to win all three games in New England if they hope to better last year's Ivy League mark of 4-8. Penn is already guaranteed a worse overall winning percentage than last year when the squad went 15-22. "We know we're not going to be first in the Ivies, but we definitely don't want to be last and that's where we are right now," Moore said. "We can definitely hang with anyone in the Ivies, so it's just a matter of going out and performing."

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