Bats quiet in home losses for Softball

If Kristi O'Connell pitched every game against the Quakers, she would be an All-American. The Delaware junior, who blanked Penn on two hits last year, baffled the Quakers again on Saturday. She allowed just one hit in nine scoreless innings in a Blue Hen doubleheader sweep at Warren Field. O'Connell let only one ball -- a Sherryl Fodera pop to shallow left -- leave the infield in her 7-0 complete-game whitewashing of Penn (8-9) in the first game. Krysta Pidstawski started the second game for the Blue Hens (12-6), but O'Connell pitched the last two innings, striking out the side in the seventh to nail down the save in the 2-1 Delaware victory. "I was just nervous because anything could happen, especially since the score was 2-1," O'Connell said of her relief appearance in the second game. "I threw what they couldn't hit before." And the Quakers still couldn't figure out how to hit the Elmsford, N.Y., native in the second game. Kashow and the Penn coaching staff tried to get the Quakers to move up in the batter's box but nothing could stop O'Connell. "She had a lot of movement on the ball," Fodera said. "We were hitting the ball pretty hard but it was just into the ground." The Quakers fared better against Pidstawski in the second game but scored just one run while leaving eight runners on base. The Penn players still managed to have some fun on Saturday, however. During a 25-minute delay after the second inning of the second game -- due to vandalism to the Delaware vans -- several Quakers entertained themselves with juggling, races and other activities to stay loose. The break also seemed to rejuvenate the Penn bats. With the game still scoreless, Penn put together its first rally of the day. Bunt singles by Michelle Zaptin and Clarisa Apostol put two on with no outs. Jaime Hojdila added another bunt single but Zaptin got thrown out trying to score. Jen Moore then hit an RBI double to give Penn a 1-0 lead. "I knew had to take whatever it was to the opposite field," Moore said. "It was an outside pitch and I just took it to right-center." But the Quakers' bats cooled and Delaware came back with two runs in the fifth. Freshman Amanda Cariello singled to left to knock in Mandy Welch and Laurie Brosnahan, giving the Blue Hens a 2-1 lead. Although Pidstawski had held Penn to only one run, Delaware coach B.J. Ferguson brought in O'Connell in the sixth inning to shut the door. "It's obvious that they were giving us some respect -- maybe last year they might not have done that," Moore said. "But this year they were probably expecting us to come back." The Quakers did not come back as O'Connell once again befuddled the Penn batters. Apostol, Lindsay Wagner and Moore struck out in the seventh to seal the loss for Penn. "I don't think that Delaware is two wins better than us," Kashow said. "We looked sloppy out there. [On] pop-ups [we] were like, 'You go for it, no I'll go for it.' This is just not the type of softball we've been playing." The Quakers committed four errors on the day, but had numerous other miscues in the field. Molly Meehan had three passed balls and Zaptin threw a wild pitch. In all, only three of the Delaware's nine runs were earned. Delaware provided more than enough offensive support for O'Connell in the first game. The Blue Hens' seven runs came on 14 hits, including three each by Welch and Brosnahan. But O'Connell's pitching was the story. While Fodera reached base on an infield single in the third, the Quakers would only have one more baserunner in the game. Third baseman Moore reached on a Rikki Greenstreet error in the seventh. Penn's doubleheader at Wagner yesterday was canceled due to inclement weather, so the Quakers did not have an opportunity to atone for Saturday's poor performance. "I think there were some impostors out there today," Kashow said, "because this certainly wasn't my team that I know." The Penn team that had won six of eight games coming into last weekend had better show up soon as the Ivy League season begins on Friday with Princeton.