Drexel's Swanson doubles her pleasure against Softball

The tornado-like windup of the Dragon's ace proved too much for the Quakers, who were swept by their local rivals. The blur you saw flashing across yesterday's azure sky was not the Hale-Bopp comet. Instead, it was the blazing yellow softball thrown by Drexel pitcher Lori Swanson at Warren Field, as she held the Penn softball team scoreless in both games. She is one dragon who certainly can spit fire. Drexel improved its record to 7-8, defeating the Quakers (10-11) in both games. The two losses bring Penn's record below .500 as they prepare to start the Ivy League season this weekend. The first game against Drexel was a pitcher's duel between Swanson and Penn freshman Joy Silvern, with the Dragons edging Penn, 1-0. Both pitchers were virtually unhittable. Swanson struck out 14 batters in the first game, yielding only one hit. Neither pitcher allowed an earned run. Drexel's lone run of the game was a controversial score in the sixth inning. With a runner on third, Drexel first baseman Jess Mattie hit a fly ball to right field. Penn sophomore Arlyn Katzen made a diving catch, while the runner on third ran home to score. However, the runner on third clearly did not tag up before running home. The umpires missed the call as both were watching the play Katzen made in right field. "Those are the kind of things that make or break a game," Penn coach Linda Carothers said. "That blown call won the game for them by giving them the run, but we didn't hit the ball and we put that runner on third base." Carothers could not have been more right. The Quakers only had one hit in the first game, a single by second baseman Kim Wormer. Of the Quakers' 22 at-bats, 14 were strikeouts. Lori Swanson picked up the win to push her record to 6-6. Joy Silvern, despite a solid outing, fell to 4-3. "(Swanson) is the best pitcher we've faced so far," Carothers said. "It was a learning experience for us because some of our kids have never seen anything like that." In the second game, the offense for both teams improved considerably, with Drexel winning the second game 7-4. In the top half of the fifth inning, Drexel scored six runs off starting pitcher Vicki Moore, who fell to 2-5, and freshman Suzy Arbogast, who came in for relief. The 7-0 deficit appeared to be too large for the Quakers to erase. In the home half of the fifth inning, Penn scored all four of its runs. Senior Laurie Nestler led off the inning with a single, followed by sophomore Kim Wormer and Arbogast. With the bases loaded, Katzen drove in the first run, Kara Lecker followed with a two-RBI double, while Sherryl Fodera, singled home Penn's last run. However, Moore popped out and Sarah Dominic struck out to end any threat to Drexel's lead. After the Quakers began to mount a comeback, Drexel coach Patricia O'Neill put the ball back in the hands of Lori Swanson, who came into the game for relief. She stymied the Quakers' attempt to comeback, pitching two more scoreless innings without yielding a hit, while striking out four. After pitching a complete game one-hitter in the first game, she bailed her starting pitcher Jaime Long out of a jam with the same speed, accuracy, and movement on her pitches. Utilizing her unorthodox windup, where she gains momentum and speed by thrusting her entire torso forward, she pitched almost 10 innings, facing 30 batters, striking out 18, while only walking two Quakers. "I think that we are going to benefit from seeing a pitcher of her caliber now," said Carothers, who has been at the helm of the Penn program for 23 years. "We are going to see pitching like that in the Ivy League, and we can utilize this experience to be ready." Sophomore Fodera was named last week's Ivy League Player of the Week, despite only going 1-7 in yesterday's two games. Last week, Fodera did an exceptional job for the Quakers, who were 3-2. In the three games, Fodera hit .571, with six runs scored and seven RBI. The Quakers No. 3 hitter, a native of New Egypt, N.J., leads the team with a .436 batting average.