After a perfect start to the Penn baseball team's spring break trip to Florida, the Red and Blue fell on hard times before winning two of their final three games to finish the break 4-7.
Led by the hot bat of junior Nate Moffie, the Quakers beat West Virginia Wesleyan, 20-8.
Moffie was 2-for-3 on the day with five RBIs and two runs scored. He did not cool off for the rest of the week, as he returned to West Philadelphia with a team-high .429 batting average.
In Penn's second game it was again a junior, this time Evan Sobel, who led the way offensively, as he went 2-for-3 with one RBI.
The Red and Blue cruised to a 10-7 victory in 10 innings over Eckerd College and improved their record to an unblemished 2-0.
Sobel, much like Moffie, carried his hot hitting throughout the rest of the week, as he finished second on the team with a .419 batting average while earning himself All-Tournament honors at shortstop.
"There were some bright spots like Sobel, Moffie and some freshman pitchers," Penn head coach Bob Seddon said. "No questions about it we had some positives."
After beating Eckerd in their first meeting, the Red and Blue began to find wins hard to come by.
Eckerd won the rematch in a 4-3 pitchers duel.
Penn junior Josh Appell went six innings before sophomore Brian Kelly finished the game, but despite outhitting its opponent 12 to 5, Penn's offense only produced three runs.
After their initial loss, the Quakers rattled off five more losses, dropping their record to 2-7.
Following the loss to Eckerd, Penn fell to South Florida, 11-5, after allowing 10 runs over the first four innings. The loss evened the Quakers' record at 2-2 before entering the Rollins Tournament.
In the opening game of the tournament, the Quakers met the host team, Rollins College.
Sophomore Brian Cirri scattered 10 hits over six innings before being relieved by freshman Joe Thornton, who finished with two scoreless innings.
The solid pitching was to no avail, however, as the Penn bats fell silent in a 5-2 loss to Rollins.
Long Island was next up for the Quakers, and despite strong offensive efforts by Moffie, Sobel and senior Mike Goldblatt, the Red and Blue once again fell just short of the needed mark, losing 8-5.
The offensive trio accounted for seven hits and drove in all five of the Quakers' runs.
Georgetown was next, and a six-run fifth inning turned out to be the demise of the Red and Blue, as they lost their fourth consecutive game by a score of 9-6.
After a string of relatively close losses, Penn was finally involved in a blowout. Unfortunately for Penn, it was on the losing end.
Meeting up again with host school Rollins, the Quakers were no match for their opponent as they fell, 12-2.
Moffie was again the offensive leader, as he collected two of Penn's six hits.
After losing to Rollins, Penn avenged a previous loss and broke its six-game losing streak as it defeated LIU, 6-3.
Thornton and fellow classmate Andrew Matheson led the way for the Quakers on the mound, as they combined to allow just three runs on five hits.
After another loss to Georgetown, Penn finished off its Florida trip with its second win over LIU in the consolation game.
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