Baseball heads north trying to stay in race

After playing five games within three days earlier this week, the Penn baseball team is prepared for another weekend jam-packed with Ivy League competition.

The Quakers will travel just north to New England to take on Brown (7-12, 0-2 Ivy) and Yale (10-10, 1-3) in consecutive doubleheaders. Both opponents are hungry to pick up some cherished Ivy League victories and should come out playing aggressively.

Both schools will also take on Columbia this weekend in two more games, which, considering Columbia's current seven-game losing streak, should not be too challenging.

Penn coach Bob Seddon sees this scheduling as a disadvantage for his own squad.

"Columbia isn't beating anybody, so we're going to get [Brown and Yale's] best pitchers," Seddon said. "We better prepare for that."

The Quakers (8-14, 5-3) will look to Ivy League co-Player of the Week Sean Abate to provide some offensive firepower against the tough pitching they are sure to face.

The first baseman connected with almost everything over the five games during the week. The native of Dumont, N.J., knocked out his second and third home runs of the season and also smacked four doubles.

Abate currently leads the team with a .359 batting average and 17 RBIs.

Abate and his teammates will have their hands full on Sunday against Yale, as they will face Elis ace Josh Sowers.

The senior pitcher leads the Ivy League with 31 strikeouts and is coming off of a complete-game performance against Cornell on Tuesday.

Sowers picked up his third win of the year in Yale's lone Ivy League victory thus far.

"We beat Yale 2-1 last year," Seddon said. "So they are saving Sowers for us on Sunday."

In response, the Quakers will put southpaw Josh Appell on the mound. Appell's 25 strikeouts are good enough for third in the Ivy League, but he has struggled with his control all season, walking 21 men in his 25 innings of work this season.

Pitching for Penn tomorrow, will be some combination of Brian Cirri, Nick Francona and Bill Kirk, all of whom have had several solid performances on the mound this season.

The trio should be wary of Brown senior Matt Kutler, whose hitting has been superb as of late.

Kutler went 7-for-7 with five RBIs in Brown's sweep of Rhode Island on Wednesday. If he continues his hitting streak tomorrow, it could spell trouble for the Quakers.

Penn does not compete in the same division as its opponents this weekend, but will still need to pick up the league wins in order to keep pace with Princeton for the Lou Gehrig division crown.

"We just can't afford to lose a league game now that Princeton has jumped out 4-0," Seddon said. "They could conceivably be 7-1 or even 8-0 after getting through with [this weekend]."

Quakers captain and shorstop Evan Sobel also pointed out the importance of this weekend's games.

"We need to get four wins," Sobel said. "It's important to us to have a legitimate chance [at the division] going into the weekends against Princeton and Cornell."

If the Quakers can continue their solid play as of late -- they are 8-5 since starting off with nine straight losses -- then they should be able to go into their four-game homestand against Princeton next weekend with an opportunity to make a run for the Gehrig division title.

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