Baseball faces must-win weekend

The Penn baseball team faces Cornell in four must-win games this weekend at home. For the Penn baseball team, which in a week's span from April 4 to April 6 lost six straight in the Ivy League, this weekend's pair of doubleheaders at Bower Field against Cornell is no time to relax. The Quakers (9-15-1, 6-6 Ivy League) enter tomorrow's play trailing Princeton, the Lou Gehrig Division leaders (13-7, 6-2), by two games and four in the loss column. Penn's opponent, the Big Red (10-10-1, 5-3), is sandwiched between the Mid-Atlantic schools in the standings. With a pair of doubleheaders approaching on April 25 and 26 in Old Nassau, Penn still controls its own destiny toward the Ivy League Series. If the Red and Blue sweep Cornell this weekend and then sweep the Tigers next, Penn is in the Series -- no matter how the rest of the Gehrig plays out. But a loss in any of this weekend's four games puts the Quakers at the Tigers' mercy in making the playoffs. And a failed quest for post-season play spells disappointment for the Quakers -- a team whose bats this season have struck the cow with more potency than any Penn team since 1989, when current pros Doug Glanville and Joe DelliCarri shared the Bower Field spotlight. "It's really a must sweep," Penn designated hitter Mark Nagata said. "Without a doubt -- we have no choice." Heading into this weekend's four games, senior second baseman Joe Carlon is the talk of the Ivies, hitting .372 with nine home runs and 32 RBIs -- Rickey Henderson-esque numbers coming from leadoff spot. Outfielder Drew Corradini and shortstop Glen Ambrosius, who follow Carlon in the order, have also shown strength beyond that expected from tablesetters this season. Corradini brings a .576 slugging percentage into the weekend to go with his .444 batting average, while Ambrosius is hitting .303 with seven home runs and 21 RBIs. But the pitching, even though improved as of late, remains less than spectacular. Staff ace Armen Simonian (2-2 6.18) will start the first of this weekend's four with Sean McDonald (2-2 5.86) throwing the first Saturday. It is essential that he set the pace because Seddon will surely need his bullpen once he gets beyond Simonian in the rotation. "There is a long way that the other guys have to go to get to the level of Armen and Sean," Penn pitching coach Bill Wagner said. A dominating win in the first game of an Ivy League four-game series also has historically ripped the hearts out of the loser for an entire weekend. "If you can manage to beat a team bad in the first game and shut them down, the rest kind of flows," Simonian said. "You gain some confidence and if you're lucky, the other team loses some, rather than maintaining it -- increasing the hiatus between the two teams in the two, three and four games." The fact that the competition is the Big Red puts a slightly different psychological edge on the game. "Especially with Cornell," Nagata said. "Historically we've had great luck with them. If we win the first game on our home turf it will be quite to our advantage." For the Big Red, game No. 1 will feature staff ace John Osgood on the hill, unless Cornell coach Tom Ford decides he doesn't want his No. 1 throwing against Simonian. Not only does Osgood boast a 3-2 record and 39 strikeouts in just 33 2/3 innings pitched, he also helps himself at the plate -- stroking the ball to a .464 batting average and .714 slugging. Last weekend at Yale, Osgood smacked a decisive double in his complete game victory over the Elis. Also expected to take the mound this weekend for Cornell are Nick Bayer (2-3 6.55), Brian Williamson (2-1 6.57) and John Douglas (1-3, 5.20), three pitchers whose ERAs highlight them as high-risk candidates to fall victim to the wrath of Quakers' bats.