Penn baseball kept itself in Ivy League title contention on the road this weekend as it split doubleheaders against Harvard and Dartmouth.
Penn (9-21, 4-8 Ivy) handed the Crimson a 1-0 loss in the first of Saturday's two games. Senior Sean Abate pitched 6 2/3 scoreless innings to keep the Red and Blue in place for the win over the team with the best record in the Ivy League.
"Abate threw his best game all year," said Penn coach John Cole of the pitcher's performance in Game 1. "He did a super job keeping the other team off balance."
Abate gave up just five hits and, supported by a solid Penn defense, helped the Quakers pick up their first shutout of the season.
"We just need to stay in the game," Abate said. "And that was pretty much my job, to keep us in the game so that they [would] feel the pressure."
Sophomore Scott Graham's single in the top of the seventh drove in freshman Tony Moses, for the game's only run.
But for Penn, the roles seemed to reverse in Saturday's rematch at Harvard (12-10-1, 7-1).
Harvard pitcher Adam Cole shut out the Quakers for eight innings, leading his team to a 7-0 victory over Penn.
But the Quakers didn't have long to dwell on the the bittersweet taste of earning a shutout, and then getting shut out at Harvard. The team hit the road en route to Hanover, N.H., for a twin bill against a second conference opponent.
"It was a tough weekend on the road," Abate said. "We faced two teams that were playing very well. We knew it would be tough going into it."
At Dartmouth (10-11, 6-2), the Quakers repeated their split, first downing the Big Green, 8-7, and then falling, 2-6, in the second round.
With two more weekends to play, and only Cornell and Princeton left to face in the Ivy League, the Quakers enter this final stretch of their season with a real shot at the playoffs despite their record of ups and downs.
"We are somehow in it, and that is how you want to be going into the last few games of the season," Cole said. "Right now we have a lot of injuries and we are very limited in that respect, but we are fighting and giving ourselves a chance."
Among the names on the injured list is center fielder Joey Boaen, one of the team's defensive anchors. The junior suffered a broken finger this weekend, leaving a gaping hole in both the roster and the outfield.
"He is a great kid and has had a great year for us," Cole said. "His finger is very badly broken. Somebody is going to have to step in and step up."
Boaen's absence may set the Quakers back, but the team has still set its sights on the playoffs.
"We just have to be consistent in all parts of the game," Cole said. "We are giving teams too many opportunities to beat us."
Penn takes a brief hiatus from Ivy League competition to visit La Salle tomorrow, its second-to-last non-Ivy game.
