The Penn baseball team temporarily silenced the critics Tuesday with a 13-5 drubbing of La Salle. It was the team's most complete effort of the season, as it performed well in nearly all aspects of the game.
It was only one game, however, and a non-league game at that. The next step for the Quakers is consistency.
The Red and Blue (7-14, 2-4 Ivy) face their most difficult road weekend of the season when they take on Red Rolfe Division powerhouses Dartmouth and Harvard this weekend.
The trip is pivotal for the Quakers, who could reach .500 in the Ivy League with a 3-1 record over the weekend. With a losing road trip, the Quakers would be left for dead in the Lou Gehrig Division race.
Despite starting the league schedule slowly, Penn still has its sights set on a division title.
"If we win this weekend, we're right back in the race," senior captain Mike Goldblatt said.
"We're 2-4, and Princeton, who we were expecting to sweep almost every weekend, was 1-3 last weekend. Right now Columbia's in first, but with 14 games left, we can still win it."
The season is indeed still early, but for Penn coach Bob Seddon, the importance of this weekend cannot be overstated.
"This weekend will tell us a lot," Seddon said. "Everybody's lost, so if we have a good weekend we'll be right in the thick of it.
"A split would keep us in it. The teams are tough, but, whatever, it's on the road. Usually you just want a split on the road, but with four losses already we don't have that luxury."
The Quakers will look to build on Tuesday's gaudy offensive numbers, as they banged out 18 hits to go along with 13 runs. Juniors Alex Blagojevich and Kasey Adler led Penn's resurgence with three hits each. Both players have recently begun to hit the ball well after struggling in the early part of the season.
But in the five games leading up to La Salle, the Red and Blue scored just nine runs -- an average of 1.8 runs per game. That's not going to win many ballgames for the Quakers, especially with their young pitching staff.
Seddon realizes that one game is not a trend, and that his players will need to feed off each other to stay productive.
"We need to be consistent," Seddon said. "It gets contagious. You never get positive breaks if you're getting beat. That's the baseball gods at work. Obviously we're gonna see good pitching this weekend, so we need to bunch our hits."
Penn did just that against the Explorers, scoring runs in five consecutive innings and giving plenty of RBI opportunities for shortstop Evan Sobel. The junior tallied four RBIs and was the third Penn player to collect three hits in the game.
But just as important was the timing of their offensive fireworks. The Quakers scored in each of the first three innings, racing to a 5-0 lead and crushing La Salle right from the beginning.
"We need to start early," Goldblatt said. "We've been down early in the first couple innings and it's really taken the life out of us. But as long as we get on the board early we should be OK."
Continuing their winning ways will not be easy for the Quakers. Dartmouth and Harvard are perhaps the two best teams in the Ivy League, and both possess elite players.
The Big Green is led by senior Ed Lucas, who brings a .464 batting average into the weekend.
The Quakers' pitchers should have their hands full, especially in a notoriously hitter's ballpark.
On Sunday, the Red and Blue must deal with the Crimson, and star pitcher/first baseman Trey Hendricks. The senior has established a Harvard record by hitting in 22 consecutive games and is equally dangerous on the mound, striking out 10 batters in his last outing.
But the La Salle game should help the Quakers erase their recent offensive futility from their collective memories as they head into the weekend.
