Softball excited to host Brown, Yale

For the first time since their spring break trip to Florida, the Penn softball team should dress everyone. Sam Smithson, Rachel Benepe and Vicki Moore all have returned to action after stints on the injured list. As soon as they came back, center fielder Abby Shore went out. Now Shore will be playing in her second game since returning to action when the Quakers (8-23, 0-2 Ivy League) take on Yale today in a 1 p.m. doubleheader at Warren Field. Although its .500 record may not indicate it, Yale (14-14, 1-2) is one of the better teams in the Ivy League. Many of the Elis' losses have come to major-conference opponents, such as Michigan State, Iowa, Missouri and Florida State. Leading the Yale attack is one of the Ivy League's most feared hitters, Megan Kenny, who is batting a whopping .398 with one home run. Jennifer Surface gives Yale another big gun in the lineup. She is hitting a hefty .337 with 8 RBIs. But the Elis do not have a deep lineup. Amy Gallo and Toni Fortunato are the only other two players batting over .240. Gallo and Fortunato have also combined for 17 RBIs. Surface is the Elis' top pitcher. She has a 1.09 ERA to go along with her 12-7 record. Through 134 2/3 innings, Surface has held opponents to a .171 batting average. Tomorrow Penn takes on Brown at Warren Field at 1 p.m. in a doubleheader. The Quakers will likely see Katie King on the mound. She has pitched in all 19 of Brown's games to date, including 16 starts. King has accounted for 115 1/3 of the Bears' 125 innings pitched this season. Twice this season she has started both legs of a doubleheader. King is more than just a workhorse. She sports a 1.94 ERA and a 3.3 strikeout-to-walk ratio. King's success has come without a bullpen to act as a safety net -- she is the only pitcher on the team to have done any relief work. Although the Quakers lack one dominating hitter, the team believes its balanced lineup will be able to fare better than other Ivy League teams have against King. "There's not really any pitcher in the Ivy League that we can't hit," Penn's Kara Lecker said. With four Ivy League games this weekend, the Quakers have a chance to make a move in the conference standings. With an upset against the heavily-favored Elis and an unlikely-but-possible sweep of Brown, Penn could actually find itself near the top of the Ivy League. But an 0-4 weekend record would effectively crush any hopes of a Cinderella finish. "I would think we would win at least half of our games," Lecker said. "But I would hope that we would win all four."