When Penn baseball hosts Drexel this afternoon at 3:30 p.m. it will mark the end of a five-game homestand.
The Quakers (6-18, 2-6 Ivy League) split weekend doubleheaders against Brown and Yale and will tune up at home before taking the long trip north to Harvard and Dartmouth.
This past weekend marked the breakout of Penn freshman centerfielder Alex Blagojevich, who was named Ivy League Freshman of the Week after hitting .545 with two RBI and three runs.
The freshman also carries a team-best five game hit streak into today's game.
Joining Blagojevich in the weekly awards was fellow Penn outfielder Bryan Graves, who was part of this week's Ivy League Honor Roll.
The sophomore is currently second on the team with a .344 average and is slugging a team-leading .705. He scorched Yale pitching for a 5-6 performance in the doubleheader.
More good news came in the form of Penn ace Mike Mattern's first win of the season, 8-4, in the first game of a doubleheader on Sunday. The complete game seven hitter was only the senior's second rotation turn in what has been an injury-marred season.
The Quakers will be facing a Drexel team that is 12-20 after a 16-4 thrashing by Villanova yesterday.
Dragons' pitcher Shane Carroll gave up six runs -- five of them earned -- in three and one-third innings of action. Carroll also walked four batters.
When Carroll came out after giving up two runs in the fourth inning, the bleeding did not stop. Villanova added four more runs in the third, all of pitcher Mike Consiglio, who had this interesting line: 0.0 innings pitched, 1 hit, 4 earned runs, 2 walks.
Nic Beecher did not fare any better for Penn's University City neighbor. The pitcher gave up five more runs as the Wildcats stretched their lead to 15-2 in the top of the fifth inning.
No player on Drexel was able to record more than one hit yesterday, and although the Dragons recorded 10 hits -- only three less than Villanova -- they stranded eight runners.
The Dragons did, however, manage to record their first CAA victory last weekend against George Mason behind lefthander Bruce Boehm's complete game 2-1 effort.
Boehm is also the Dragons' number one threat at the plate, leading the team in home runs and RBI.
The league win is a bright spot for a team that has struggled to win two of its last eight games.
Part of Drexel's struggles can be attributed to its pitching staff's inability to close out games. Only Greg Barnett owns a winning record, and the team has dropped six of nine one-run games.
The Daily Pennsylvanian is an independent, student-run newspaper. Please consider making a donation to support the coverage that shapes the University. Your generosity ensures a future of strong journalism at Penn.
DonatePlease note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.