There is a chance that this will not be the final weekend of seniors Steve Glass, Nick Italiano, Ben Krantz and Andrew McCreery's Penn baseball careers.
But it's not a good one.
The Quakers (20-15, 10-6 Ivy) will travel to Ithaca, N.Y., this weekend to take on Cornell (13-14, 6-6) in their final regular season series of the year.
After leading the Ivy League for much of the season, Penn lost three of four to Princeton over the weekend to fall two games back of the Tigers (10-2 Ivy). If Princeton splits their final eight games -- played against Columbia and Cornell -- and Penn wins out there would be a tie in the Lou Gehrig division. That would result in a one-game playoff.
"I think it's realistic for [Princeton] to split both series," McCreery said. "But stranger things have happened in baseball. Somebody can get hurt, one of their pitchers could have a bad game and lead to some others having bad games."
Should Princeton go worse than .500 down the stretch, combined with a Penn sweep, the Quakers could win the Lou Gehrig division outright.
However, given how well Princeton is playing that would be unlikely.
"I don't think they'll [go 3-5]," he added. "But who would have thought that Mariano Rivera would have lost in Game Seven of the World Series for the Yankees?"
Of course, for Princeton's record over their final eight to be relevant, the Quakers almost certainly need to get a sweep against Cornell.
"The tendency is for everybody to want to [watch the scoreboard]," Italiano said. "But the most important thing is to do our job and win our games. If we do that and the chips fall in our favor, that's great, but if not, at least we know we did our part."
Penn has some experience with sweeping Cornell, as it did so last season. To do so again, the Quakers need to contend with reigning Ivy League Pitcher of the Week Chris Schutt. The junior right-hander had 15 strikeouts in the Big Red's 7-1 win over Columbia Saturday.
"You don't want to come out and be intimidated by anybody," Italiano said. "If you let those numbers affect how you play, you're not going to have much success. He seems like a good pitcher, and he's improved. But we have a good lineup and, hopefully, we can come alive."
Schutt hopes to improve upon his performance from a year ago. The Quakers solved the right-hander to the tune of six runs in five innings. Penn went on to win, 12-11.
"We scored two on him early last year and that got him out of sync," McCreery said. "Hopefully, we get on top of him early. That always rattles a pitcher. If he starts thinking he has to make perfect pitches, he might get a little wild."
Cornell stands at 6-6 in the Ivy League, but still has a four-game series against Princeton. Therefore, the Big Red are playing for more than just the opportunity to spoil the Quakers' season.
"We're both kind of in the thick of the race," Italiano said. "Cornell still has four games against Princeton. They hope they can beat us and sneak away with the title."
Since Princeton appears likely to win its eighth consecutive Lou Gehrig division title, the Quakers -- after being pegged as a preseason favorite to dethrone the Tigers -- might be expected to be disappointed.
However, it is difficult to be disappointed when a glimmer of hope still exists
"This year's team especially is really special," Italiano said. "We have a chance. We're in it to the wire, and looking back, I'm sure we'll have nothing but fond memories."
Fonder still should the Quakers sweep the Big Red this weekend.
