Softball seeks to avenge loss

Jumping out to an early lead is an important part of winning a softball game. But holding on to that lead is even more important. In its first game against La Salle earlier this season, Penn took a 1-0 lead, but ended up losing 13-1. Today the Quakers (12-13) will visit the Explorers (3 p.m., Good Shepherd Field). But this time they hope not to be such gracious guests. "La Salle's a very aggressive team," senior pitcher Lanie Moore said. "We jumped out to a 1-0 lead and we weren't able to score after that. If we jump out to a lead and continue to hit, we'll be fine." "They have some speed and they have decent hitters," freshman second baseman Samantha Smithson said. "They're a pretty decent team, but they're beatable. As far as hitting is concerned, we need to attack the ball early in the game and not allow little mistakes to overcome us." Penn is coming off a week of playing shaky softball. After being swept by Princeton over the weekend and beating Cornell twice because of a string of Big Red miscues, the Quakers are not playing with complete confidence. "I thought that considering our abilities, we should have beaten [Cornell] by a lot more than we did," Smithson said. "We keep beating ourselves. We haven't been beaten by any team except Princeton. "When the other teams get hits, that's fine. But when we make errors, we're beating ourselves. We're definitely going to need to be more into the game." Penn coach Linda Carothers believes her all-purpose strategy of hitting the ball hard and keeping the ball in play will prevent the Explorers from shutting down the Quakers this time. "One of the things we didn't do too well [against Princeton] is force them to make the plays," coach Linda Carothers said. "If [La Salle] doesn't have to field the ball, and they don't have to throw the ball, their percentage of error will be zero." Although Penn hopes to force La Salle to make the crucial mistakes, solid defense and pitching will also be required on the part of the Quakers. "I think we're going to have to clean up our game," senior outfielder Hilary Stamos said. "La Salle always comes up tough. They don't quit. They keep coming back. We're not ready for teams to come back with two outs." Despite a rough week of Ivy competition, the Quakers feel they are capable of beating La Salle. If they fulfill their goals of attacking the Explorers early in the game and then stifling La Salle's offense, the Quakers will no doubt walk away from Good Shepherd Field with a victory. Sounds easy enough.

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