Up and down. That's the story for the Penn baseball team.
The Quakers received a two-hit gem from junior Josh Appell in the first game of a Saturday doubleheader against Yale. But any momentum the Red and Blue might have gained from the 1-0 win was destroyed by a 12-3 blowout loss in the second game Saturday, followed by a washout of their doubleheader against Brown on Sunday.
Penn (6-14, 2-4 Ivy) will play a makeup doubleheader against the Bears at home Wednesday, April 14.
The team got the type of pitching performance it had been looking for in the first game from Appell. The left-hander went all seven innings against Yale (7-12, 2-2), striking out four but leaving room for improvement with seven walks.
"Idon't think I had my best stuff today,"Appell said. "Ilet up a few too many free bases, but Ijust battled every inning, fought through everything, and managed to not give in."
On a mostly young pitching staff, the junior seems to be taking a leadership role, both on and off the diamond.
"We don't have any senior pitchers, and there's no pitcher captain,"Appell said. "So all the juniors try to be leaders on the team. It's really important to be loud in the dugout and get the team excited.
"But as far as leading by example, I try to keep us in the game, not give in, and go out there and pitch my heart out."
But the strong pitching effort did not carry over to game two.
The struggles continued for junior starter Bill Kirk, who gave up 11 hits and six earned runs in five innings. Kirk, and relievers Drew Matheson and Michael Gibbons, gave the Quakers reason for optimism by walking just one batter all game. But they often appeared overmatched against an Elis squad loaded with left-handed hitters.
"Our inconsistency popped right up again in the second game,"Penn coach Bob Seddon said. "Against Yale you needed a left-handed pitcher cause they loaded their lineup with lefties. We needed a left-handed pitcher in the second game and we just didn't get good pitching."
The poor pitching in the second game only highlighted the fact that the Quakers have not broken out of their team-wide slump at the plate.
Penn got away with scoring just one run in the first game thanks to Appell's exploits. But the Red and Blue could not deliver a strong offensive performance when it needed one against Yale starter Jon Hollis.
The Elis' right-hander was dominant, giving up just one run on five hits in seven innings, fanning seven. The Quakers' only run before the ninth inning came on an RBI single by catcher Jon Slaughter, driving in center fielder Nate Moffie.
Two triples by Moffie represented Penn's only two extra-base hits of the first 17 innings of the doubleheader. Although pinch-hitter Joe Udine doubled in the ninth, keying a two-run rally, the Quakers seemed discouraged by their continuing meltdown at the plate.
When asked if he saw anything to suggest improvement in the club's batting, Seddon did not mince his words.
"None. No. We gotta do better,"Seddon said. "We're just not hitting enough."
While they failed for most of the day, the Red and Blue did give Appell the only support he would need in the bottom of the sixth inning of game one.
Moffie singled to lead off the inning but was still there with two outs until junior Kasey Adler singled him to third.
Penn has not done well lately in situations with runners on base and two outs. But junior Matt Horn didn't seem to care, smoking a single to center and scoring Moffie for the winning run.
The Quakers will need more hits like this to assert themselves as a factor in the Lou Gehrig Division race.
