Softball looks to end season with upsets

A tough season for the Penn softball team may get a little tougher this weekend. The Quakers, sporting a lowly 2-7 record in the Ivy League, will conclude their Ancient Eight season this weekend when they square off against Harvard and Dartmouth, the two top teams in the conference. Last weekend, the Red and Blue (13-25-1) were only able to squeeze in one game -- a 10-5 loss to Harvard -- as rain washed away Penn's other three scheduled contests. The Quakers' non-league games against Wagner and St. Joseph's have been cancelled this weekend to leave room for their rescheduled games against the Crimson and the Big Green. Thus far in 2000, Harvard and Dartmouth appear to be the two best teams in the Ivies. The Crimson are undefeated in Ivy play so far and are led by a strong balance of pitching and hitting. Five Harvard batters are hitting over .300, while Chelsea Thoke stabilizes the pitching staff with 93 strikeouts this season -- the sixth highest total in program history. However, the Crimson sport a subpar record of 12-17 overall, and in last weekend's game against Penn, they looked very beatable as the Quakers bats knocked out Thoke after just four innings. It was not until the sixth inning that a five-run offensive barrage gave Harvard the victory. The Quakers will also have their work cut out for them against Dartmouth (4-2, 19-11), which has only played six league games and is sitting pretty in second place in the Ivies, 1 1/2 games behind Harvard. The Big Green are coming off a big weekend in which they swept Princeton, beating the Tigers for the first time in the history of their program. Dartmouth was led to victory by freshman pitcher Christine Quattrocchi, who threw all 14 innings of the two-game series, which was played on Friday and Sunday due to rain. Quattrocchi shut out the Tigers in the second game without allowing a runner to reach third base. Her performance against the Orange and Black made her Ivy League Pitcher of the Week for the third time this season. While Harvard and Dartmouth will probably be duking it out this weekend for the Ivy title, the Quakers are simply looking to end their somewhat disappointing season on a high note. "We're looking to come out, play hard, put out our best effort and see what happens," senior captain Michelle Zaptin said. "Of course, we'd love to end the season on a good note and hopefully prove to everybody that we're better than our record indicates." The majority of the Red and Blue squad believes that the Quakers have yet to reach their potential this season and hope that they will finally do so in their season finale. "We're all disappointed because our record doesn't really show how good we are," sophomore second baseman Jamie Pallas said. "There have been a lot of games that we let slip away, and I'm sure we're all frustrated." Pallas also noted that the Quakers have had a difficult time putting all three facets of their game -- pitching, hitting and defense -- together for one game. "We're all going to go out there and play hard and try to get all three assets of our game working at the same time," Pallas said. "If we do that, we can definitely have a great weekend." One spark for the Quakers this season has been sophomore third baseman Jen Moore. On Wednesday against Delaware, Moore tied Penn's single-season record for hits with 44, but was rather modest about her accomplishments, saying after the game that she cared more about the team's success. Moore's team-first attitude has spread throughout the Quakers squad, and heading into the final weekend of the season and the last in the careers of Penn's three seniors, the Red and Blue want to play together and do the best they can. "We're all definitely a little sad right now -- it's come to an end really quickly," said Zaptin, who will be playing in her final collegiate softball game this weekend. "But we're all looking forward to this weekend to see what we can do."