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Steve Glass and the Penn men's baseball team are hoping to end their six-game losing streak this weekend.[Matthew Sorber/DP File Photo]

Penn baseball coach Bob Seddon said it best after his team's practice at Murphy Field yesterday:

"We need to win."

The Quakers will try to get off the Ivy League slide this weekend as they host Brown in a doubleheader on Saturday and Yale in a Sunday twinbill.

The Red and Blue (4-16, 0-4 Ivy League) have gotten off to a very slow start this season. The Quakers dropped seven of 10 games on their season-opening Spring Break trip and then were swept in two doubleheaders at division rival Princeton over the weekend.

"They were all close games," Seddon said of the series. "The difference was the pitching. Man-for-man, I would take my eight [position players] over theirs, but good pitching will beat good hitting every time."

The Quakers hope to get some more good pitching back, when senior pitcher Mike Mattern -- sidelined all season with an injury -- returns to the rotation this weekend.

As for good hitting, the Quakers have been getting a little. Five players who have played in at least 16 of 20 games are batting .300 or better.

The offense is led by junior second baseman Nick Italiano, who was recently named Ivy League Player of the Week, thanks to some gaudy numbers. Italiano is hitting .420, with 72 RBI, .652 slugging and .500 on-base percentages.

The problem, according to Seddon, is that not enough of the Quakers' hits are coming in bunches.

"We should be scoring runs," Seddon said. "We have left so many men on base, we need to get a couple of base hits in a row."

Indeed, in their four games against the Tigers, the Quakers stranded an average of 9.5 men on base, including as many as 15 in a single game.

"We need a couple of people to get hot," Seddon said. "They've really worked hard. They deserve to have a couple of line drives fall."

The Quakers hope to see a lot of falling line drives this weekend, as the Brown Bears (9-12) hit West Philly.

"I think Brown might be the best team on that side of the league," Seddon said.

The Bears feature one of the better players in the Ancient Eight in senior outfielder Ricky Lynn. Lynn is hitting .325 with three home runs and a .402 on-base percentage this year. He's also 15 for 15 in stolen base attempts.

Yale (5-11) presents a different problem.

"Yale always has pitchers," Seddon said. "I don't see them hitting that well, though."

The Yale pitching staff is anchored by Craig Breslow and Matt McCarthy. Breslow has a 1.20 ERA and 23 strikeouts in 30 innings pitched. McCarthy boasts a 2.53 ERA with 19 strikeouts in 21 innings pitched.

For his part, Italiano was happy to just get in a couple of days of practice in preparation for this weekend.

"It was good to not have any midweek games," Italiano said. "We got a couple of good days of practice in. It was tough coming back from Florida. We've just gotten in our first real set of practices because it was cold for awhile [after we came back], and we had to practice indoors."

Despite the dismal weather and their less-than-desirable record, the Quakers have managed to stay loose and upbeat in practice.

"Absolutely, I really think we just enjoy playing baseball," Italiano said. "When you're losing, you can really get tense and uptight and when that happens, it's no good for anyone."

"I'm very happy with the way the team is reacting," Seddon said. "I hope they're enjoying the game, that's what it's all about. It's a fun team to coach."

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