Baseball suffers 3rd straight Ivy sweep

With only two wins in the Ivy League this season, the Penn baseball team entered its mid-week doubleheader against Brown trying to turn around a season that up to this point has been a disappointment.

The Red and Blue found no chance for resurgence, however, as they were whitewashed by the offensive attack of Brown in back-to-back losses, 14-7 and 15-7.

All told, the Bears (9-14, 6-2 Ivy) scored 29 runs in the two games and completely overmatched the Red and Blue pitchers. The 14 runs scored in the opener tied Brown's season high, but that high was quickly surpassed in game two, as the Bears rallied for 15 runs.

"We just didn't play well at all, not at all," Penn head coach Bob Seddon said. "Our pitching was just very, very bad. We walked 20 guys in two games and hit eight or nine and [Brown] hits the ball well."

In the first game, the Quakers (7-20, 2-10) sent junior Josh Appell to the mound, but he didn't last long.

After allowing four runs in an inning and a third, Appell was replaced. The bullpen didn't fare much better either, allowing 10 runs in relief.

On the offensive side, juniors Matt Horn and Alex Blagojevich led the Quakers. Blagojevich had four hits, including a grand slam, while Horn contributed three hits of his own.

In game two, junior Nate Moffie and senior Jon Slaughter each contributed two hits, but again Penn's offense could not keep pace with Brown.

Brown scored runs in every inning except the fourth and had a four-run lead by the time the Quakers' were batting in the thirdinning.

"We still didn't hit well with men on base, we scored 14 runs but it could have been more. But our offense was all right," Seddon said. "But when you're behind all the time, what can you do? The pitching just wasn't very good, we couldn't get batters out."

Junior Brian Winings started game two and allowed just one hit over two innings. But six walks brought a quick end to his afternoon on the mound. Again the Red and Blue bullpen failed to stop the bleeding, as it allowed 12 runs throughout the remainder of the game.

The Red and Blue threw eight different pitchers on the day and not a single one was able to escape without allowing at least one earned run.

"The pitchers are failing, some of the guys that we were counting on are just not producing," Seddon said.

With the team struggling, Seddon is beginning to play around with the Penn lineup..

One player who has been seeing more and more time as the season has progressed is sophomore Sean Abate. With junior Kasey Adler still mired in a season-long slump, Abate has been taking advantage of his increased playing time and yesterday went 3-for-7 on the afternoon.

"We've started to make some changes" in the lineup, Seddon said. "Guys who have been off- and-on all season may start losing time."

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