Baseball kicks off Ivy campaign

Penn plays four games this weekend in doubleheaders with Yale and Brown. The friendly confines of Murphy Field await the return of the Penn baseball team this weekend. For the Quakers, it's not a moment too soon. After a rough two-game road trip this week that consisted of two one-run losses to Temple on Tuesday and Lafayette on Wednesday, Penn (8-9) will open its Ivy League schedule tomorrow at Murphy Field with a doubleheader against Yale (8-14) at 11:30 a.m. The Quakers hope that a return to their home stadium, which yielded three wins in five tries before they hit the road this week, will help to solve their various ills. Against both the Elis and Brown (6-11), which visits Philadelphia for a double-dip on Sunday at noon, the Quakers will need better performances from their pitchers in order to avoid falling in their first Ivy games of the season. Penn hurlers walked 13 Lafayette batters on Wednesday. Against top Ancient Eight competition, that sort of production is likely to lead to further defeat. However, Penn coach Bob Seddon is confident that the Quakers will rise to the challenge that Ivy play sets out for them. "On the weekend, you're going to see a game like [against Temple] or against Northern Iowa," he said, referring to two of Penn's close losses in tight games. "Usually against the real good teams in a league setting, your team steps up and really plays well? because they have to." Last season, the Quakers lost three of four on the road to Yale and Brown. Their only win was against the Elis, a 13-7 decision on April 10. Penn dropped the second game of that afternoon's doubleheader and traveled to Brown the next day to lose by a combined score of 27-5 over two games, the latter match a 19-1 drubbing. Such weekends were the norm for the Quakers last year, as they won a paltry six Ivy games while dropping 14. However, all of the teams in the Ivy League have been characterized by mediocre-to-poor starts this year. While many Ivy teams have played tougher non-conference schedules than the Quakers -- Yale, which visited Kentucky, ranked 27th in the country by the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper Poll, and Brown included -- the fact remains that the Elis and Bears will walk into Murphy Field with records of 8-14 and 6-11, respectively. "The Ivy League, if you look at the standings, good God," Seddon said. But while Yale's record may be subpar, the Elis' play of late has not been. Yale invades Philadelphia on a three-game winning streak after Wednesday's 15-4 New Haven mauling of 14-4 Marist. The Elis received solid pitching in their victory, something that could stop Penn's potent offensive attack -- the only thing that has been working for the Quakers lately. Yale is led by 1998 Ivy Player of the Year and 1999 first team All-Ivy shortstop Tony Coyne, who homered Wednesday. Despite being hindered with a knee injury last season, Coyne managed to hit .417 and led the Elis with six home runs. The Quakers will also have to deal with senior Brian Ivy, who transferred from Yale to the University of Texas as a sophomore, only to return to the Elis for this, his final collegiate season. As a freshman in 1997, he led Yale in batting. The aptly named Ivy also notched three hits against the Red Foxes on Wednesday. Brown, on the other hand, split a doubleheader at VMI (12-16) on Tuesday, winning by the score of 16-7 in the first game before falling in the nightcap, 10-7. The next day, those two teams faced off again, with Brown beating the Keydets, 8-6. On Sunday, the Bears will bring their considerable offensive weapons to bear on Penn. A good chunk of that offense comes in the form of the Bears' double-play combination, senior second baseman Jeff Lawler and junior shortstop Dan Kantrovitz. Lawler is a first team All-Ivy selection who set a school record for hits last year with 52. Kantrovitz, also a first team All-Ivy selection, led the Ivies with 32 hits in Ivy League games, including 10 doubles. He also led the Ancient Eight in hitting last year with a .478 batting average. To counteract these threats, the Quakers will send sophomore pitcher Mark Lacerenza to the mound in the first game against Yale tomorrow, and Andrew McCreery will start the second game on the mound. Seddon said that McCreery was pitching in tomorrow's second game so that he would be able to be used as an outfielder in the first game -- he would have a sore arm Sunday if he pitched the first game and patrolled center field in the second. Sunday, Mike Mattern will take the ball for Penn in the first game against Brown, while Ben Krantz will probably start the nightcap. Mattern pitched well on Tuesday at Veterans Stadium, somewhat easing Seddon's concerns after his shaky outing in the Murphy Field opener against St. Joseph's last week. "The stage is set," Seddon said. "[The] experimentation is over."