The Penn softball team will be playing with house money from here on out.
With 15 games left in the season following yesterday's 6-0 victory over Temple, the Quakers have equaled the win total of last year's 10-31-1 team and are creeping closer to the .500 mark -- they are currently three games below .500. Penn has not had a winning season since it went 11-7 in 1984.
Sophomore pitcher Lindsey Permar set the tone early in yesterday's game, making it clear that getting hits would be no easy feat. As a result, she earned a complete game shutout.
"Lindsey threw the best game she's thrown all season," coach Leslie Moore said. "She really had her drop ball going which they struggled to handle."
Permar's talent was evident as she limited the Owls to just three hits and only two walks. The sophomore also struck out seven, moving her season total to 37. Permar set Penn's single-season strikeout record last year with 112, which is 31 more than Suzanne Arbogast -- the next closest on the list.
Although her performance was an excellent individual achievement, Permar credited her success to the team as a whole.
"The team feeds off of each other," Permar said. "When one player does well, the others do well. I pitch better when the team plays better, and they play better when I pitch better."
Accordingly, Permar's performance was only one component of the Quakers' well-rounded play against the Owls (11-19, 1-3 Atlantic 10) -- good hitting was also a major contributing factor to the victory.
Leading the charge was Annie Kinsey, who went 2-for-2 with a walk and a run scored.
"I felt confident," Kinsey said. "The team did really well as a whole, and I think that really helped me out."
Sophomore Brandi King and junior Jen Nichols scored the Quakers' first two runs in the top of the second, but the offensive onslaught that put the game out of reach for the Owls occurred in the bottom of the fifth.
Kinsey started the offensive attack with a single up the middle that advanced pinch runner Kim Le to second base. With two on and one out, freshman Christina Khosravi then drew a walk.
With the bases loaded, the Owls felt the pressure and made a pitching change. It didn't matter, however, as new pitcher Richelle Villescas walked Meghan Cowen, which brought Le in to score.
Consecutive hits by King, Nichols and sophomore Kim May drove in three more runs for the Quakers (10-13, 0-2 Ivy). In total, Penn scored four runs on three hits to extend its lead to 6-0 and put the game out of reach for the Owls.
"We continued to hit the ball very well and had some clutch hitting and a lot of good base running," Moore said. "As a team performance it was the best of the year."
The Quakers' talent was also shown defensively as Khosravi and others continued to field the ball very well. Although the Quakers committed two errors, their defense was generally cleaner than that of the Owls.
"We were hitting well and our defense was really tight," Permar said. "I feel that everyone feeds off that."
The Quakers' next game comes at Cornell on Saturday, where they will look to improve upon their 0-2 start to the Ivy League season.
The Big Red (14-11) have had strong performers on the mound and in the batter's box this year and will be opening their Ivy League season.
