For all its tribulations, the Penn baseball team will enter the final weekend of its season with a chance to play for the Ivy League Championship.
Mathematically, coach John Cole's team can clinch a share of the Lou Gehrig division in a handful of ways. All of them have one common thread, though. Penn (10-25, 5-11 Ivy) has to take at least three games out of four from Princeton (10-19-1, 5-7) in New Jersey this weekend.
Realistically, Penn's players realize that their burden is even heavier.
"We have to take four this weekend and then hope for some things to happen," senior Ken-Ichi Hino said. "But we are not counting ourselves out of the race yet."
"We have played pretty well on the road, actually," Cole said. "So I'm hoping we go up there, get some momentum, win Game 1 and hopefully get some confidence and stun them a little bit up there."
That task will not be an easy one for the Red and Blue. The Tigers have far and away the best pitching in the league, with a 4.30 ERA.
And on Tuesday, an 8-6 win over Seton Hall extended their league-best winning streak to six games.
"They will be excited to have us come up there," Cole said. "It's home for them, and they just swept Columbia."
Princeton outscored the Lions 33-5 during that stretch, posting a 0.53 ERA on the weekend and seizing the lead in the Gehrig Division.
Tigers pitcher Eric Walz received an Ivy League Player of the Week award for scattering five hits and no runs over ten innings in one of the games.
And Cole may need something special from his own pitching staff if his team is to be competitive at Clarke Field this weekend.
"We are going to keep the ball down and not make mistake pitches to big hitters," senior Michael Gibbons said.
The big hitter Penn will be trying to contain is Andrew Salini, who has 32 RBIs and is tied for the Ivy League lead with six home runs.
The Quakers will also have to rely on their own bats to keep their Ivy League championship hopes alive.
Junior center fielder Joey Boaen's absence due to injury has certainly hampered the Quakers offensively, but Penn still has firepower.
Junior catcher Josh Corn leads the team in batting average, hitting at a .353 clip, while Alex Nwaka's 10 doubles are the most of any Penn player.
Fielding continues to be a problem for the Red and Blue, whose .925 fielding percentage is by far the worst in the league. Princeton's .953 is second-best, behind Brown.
And ultimately, according to Cole, pitching and defense will once again define the team's results.
"We have to pitch and catch the ball. There is no mystery -- it is that simple," he said.
"If we do, we will be in the games and give [ourselves] chances; if we don't, we won't."
