With a sweep of Dartmouth and Harvard this past weekend, the Penn baseball team would have returned to .500 and jumped from third to first place in the Lou Gehrig Division.
Instead, the Quakers (7-18, 2-8 Ivy) lost all four games to the Big Green and the Crimson, thereby strongly reducing their chances of winning the division title. Penn trails first-place Columbia by four games with 10 games left in the season.
Despite the four losses, there were some bright spots in Penn's seemingly gloomy weekend.
While Penn's offensive woes continued -- the Red and Blue scored just 16 total runs compared to their opponents' 38 runs -- junior center fielder Nate Moffie slugged a home run in each game against Dartmouth. The 2003 first-team All-Ivy selection went 6-for-9 with two doubles against the Big Green with six RBIs.
"Moffie had a great weekend and he's having an excellent year," Penn coach Bob Seddon said. "He's well-respected around the league."
Seddon noted that Harvard scouted Moffie effectively and did not give him many pitches to hit. As a result, Moffie went 0-for-6 against the Crimson.
Penn's pitchers struggled against Dartmouth, giving up six runs in the first game and 20 in the second.
In the first game, junior JoshAppell (2-2) -- who boasts Penn's top ERA at 3.69 -- surrendered six runs, though only three were earned. He also walked three batters. Penn fell to Dartmouth, 6-4.
"Appell pitched well," Seddon said. "We just didn't score for him."
In the second game, junior Remington Chin (0-3) gave up 10 runs (eight earned) while walking five batters in just three-and-two-thirds innings. Last season, Chin had a 4.73 ERA, but this season he's nearly doubled that average at 8.34.
"Chin just wasn't himself," Seddon said. "He didn't pitch well, his location wasn't where he would normally want it and he got behind in many of the counts."
The relief pitching was not much better, as freshman Drew Matheson gave up five earned runs and seven hits in two-and-one-third innings.
Part of the reason for the Quakers allowing 20 runs in the second game against Dartmouth -- aside from poor pitching -- is that they recorded four errors.
"Defensively, as a team, we're not playing as well as we should play," Seddon said. "We're just struggling as a team and we can't seem to get it together."
Penn's pitching rebounded against Harvard. Junior Brian Winings gave up just two hits in six innings and allowed three earned runs. Harvard sophomore Frank Herrmann also pitched a complete game, surrendering only one run on three hits.
In the second game against Harvard, Penn sophomore Brian Cirri allowed six runs in just over six innings. Again, however, a more dominant Harvard pitching staff overshadowed Penn's relatively strong pitching performance. Crimson senior Trey Hendricks allowed two earned runs in eight innings and struck out five Quakers.
"Harvard's pitching is just excellent, especially Hendricks," Seddon said.
The good news for the Quakers is that the Lou Gehrig Division is relatively weak compared to the Red Rolfe Division this season. Between the four Lou Gehrig Division teams -- Cornell, Princeton, Columbia and Penn -- only two victories were recorded this weekend against Red Rolfe opponents.
"Our division is getting ripped up this year," Seddon said. "The other side is much stronger."
