Bob Seddon reached a milestone. Nick Italiano closed in on another.
But good luck try getting Seddon to talk about his 600th career win or Italiano closing to within 11 hits of becoming Penn's all-time career leader. The coach and captain only wanted to talk about taking three of four from Columbia to start the Ivy League season.
"Well its nice," Seddon said. "But that is by far not my focus... if as a coach you start getting wrapped up in that stuff you're focus is wrong. It's nice and I'll look back on it someday."
"I had no idea how many I was away," Italiano said. "I'm just focused on doing what I have to do to get this team wins."
Penn (11-7, 3-1 Ivy) split its Ivy League opening double-header against Columbia on Saturday, falling in the first game, 11-6, before winning a 19-10 rout.
Ivy League Pitcher of the Week Russ Brocatto gave up nine runs in just 3 1/3 innings of work in the defeat.
The second game Saturday marked win No. 600 for Seddon, which comes after 33 years at Penn.
Senior Stephen Glass and Italiano each had four of Penn's 19 hits in the rout.
Despite being only the second game of the Ivy League season for the Quakers, their was a good deal of pressure on Penn on Saturday afternoon in New York.
"That second game, there was a lot of pacing in here," Seddon said. "That second game was big. I don't know if the players realized as much as we did, but if you go 3-1, versus 2-2, when nobody else is playing... it's big."
The second half of the home and home series was postponed due to weather from Sunday to yesterday afternoon at Murphy Field.
Penn picked up right where it left off Saturday despite the layoff, embarrassing the Lions, 21-2, in the first game and scoring eight times in the first three innings before holding on to win, 9-6, in the nightcap.
Nate Moffie went five-for-five at the plate -- part of an eight at-bat hitting streak over the weekend for the sophomore leftfielder -- in the opening win.
"It's just a matter of staying relaxed at the plate," Moffie said. "I've been seeing the ball real well since the season started, but at the beginning of the season I wasn't getting any cheap hits. Now they all seem to be falling in."
Senior pitcher Andrew McCreery struck out nine in a complete game victory.
Undettered by a two-run deficit after the first inning, the Quakers came back to score 21 runs over the first five innings. First baseman Kasey Adler hit his second homerun of the series in the win.
Penn jumped to a quick lead in the second game behind Italiano's four RBI's. Pitcher Bill Kirk struggled in the fifth inning as a three-run homerun to dead center by Columbia sophomore Ryan Schmidt cut the lead to 8-5. However, a key strikeout and a great plate block by catcher Matt Horn on an attempted steal of home got Penn out of danger that inning. Columbia would leave 13 men on base and Brian Winings notched his fifth save of the season -- tying the single-season record for Penn.
Penn has now won nine of 10 and -- in contrast to last season's 0-4 start to the Ivy season after a Princeton sweep -- Penn sits atop the Ivies.
"It was good to send the message to the league that we're back," Italiano said. "The hot streak at the end of last season wasn't a fluke and this team's for real."
