Softball has Ivies on the horizon

Penn looks for two wins against Drexel in the last games beofre the Ivy League season begins. It's time for another blast to the past for the coach of Penn's softball team. This week's edition: Drexel, the site of Penn coach Carol Kashow's first coaching job. With the Ivy League opener only three days away, the Quakers hope to rekindle the excitement of last week's sweep against West Chester, their coach's alma mater. Today's games are the last preparation before the beginning of the Ivy League schedule, yet the Quakers (5-12) are still plagued by inconsistency. Coming off its doubleheader sweep of West Chester Wednesday, the Red and Blue dropped three of four over the weekend. "We have a good game plan going," Kashow said. "We're putting some runs on the board, but not quite as many as we'd like to." Penn hopes today's 2:30 p.m. doubleheader at Drexel will help them straighten things out. The Quakers look to build on their 5-5 tie against Drexel in the fall, after the Dragons swept a doubleheader last season. While at times the Quakers have shown their ability to hit, pitch and to play solid defense, they have not yet been able to put the three together. Despite only having one upperclassman, senior tri-captain Jen Strawley, on the the staff, pitching has definitely been the most consistent, with four pitchers making regular contributions. Sophomore Suzanne Arbogast has posted all five of the Quakers' wins. She won three of four decisions last week, including eight strong innings against Delaware and both wins against West Chester. "Coach does a good job and gives everyone a chance to pitch," Arbogast said. "I've just been lucky. When I'm pitching, we've produced more runs." Sophomore Joy Silvern and freshman Lee Pepe pitched well in Sunday's second game against Rider, giving up only three earned runs, but neither got the run support required to get a win. "If I start thinking about anything except doing my job and keeping us in the game, I'm not going to be pitching my best," Silvern said. "The rest will start taking care of itself." Silvern is still in rehab coming off shoulder surgery that kept her off the mound for nine months. She still cannot pitch more than four days in a row, which she feels has hurt her consistency. "I need to get more consistent from pitch to pitch," Silvern said. "I'm really happy my good pitches are moving and doing what I want them to. Coming back I was worried my shoulder wouldn't allow me to get the speed and movement I used to have." But even the pitching has lapses. The Quakers gave up 18 runs in the first game against Rider before the NCAA "mercy rule" ended the game early. "We're trying to figure out what combinations work and how many innings pitchers can go," Kashow said. "It's a learning time for us. We're trying to figure out how we can best utilize their talents." Defense has been an even more uneven road for the Quakers. It was a big problem in Florida, where the team lost its first eight, but a few errorless games led to five wins in seven games. Then the defense collapsed in the second game of Sunday's doubleheader against Rider. Penn blew a 2-0 lead and gave up three runs in one inning without allowing a hit. "We took our eye off the ball a little on the defensive end," Kashow explained. The main problem, however, is the Quakers inability to hit consistently. After struggling to score runs in Florida, Penn put 15 runs on the board in three games. But last weekend they could only muster seven runs in four games. "What often happens is we get on a streak," Arbogast said. "A few people hit in a row, we get excited and it continues." Although the potential for success is definitely there, the Quakers are running out of time to put it all together. "The biggest thing is we really want to win the next two games to have a positive feeling going into the Ivies," Arbogast said. "We want to be up and ready for the competition."