Penn must respond to ugly losses

The Penn baseball team will look to rebound in today's game against Rider, with hopes of finishing its non-conference schedule on a high note.

After dropping three of four to Cornell over the weekend, the Quakers (10-24, 5-11 Ivy) have fallen from first to third place out of four in the Gehrig Division of the Ivy League.

In its most recent wins, Rider (13-21, 8-4 MAAC) swept two games against Iona, winning by at least six runs in each contest.

In an effort to avoid another offensive onslaught from an opposing team, the Quakers must improve upon several aspects of their game in light of lessons learned from Cornell last weekend.

"It really comes down to pitching and defense," Penn coach John Cole said. "We have to keep the ball down, and when they hit it, we have to catch it. We haven't done that, and that's why we're struggling."

The Quakers have not had an error-free game since mid-March against Lehigh and have committed 15 errors in their last five games.

The Broncs have several offensive threats, including senior outfielder Mike Poalise, who is averaging .379 at the plate and has driven in 24 runs this season.

But solid defense is only part of the equation; the Quakers' hitting will have to heat up as well in order to keep up with the Broncs, who are averaging over ten hits per game.

Penn catcher Josh Corn continues to lead the offense and is averaging .348 with 25 runs scored.

The junior is helped out by sophomore Alex Nwaka, averaging .319, and freshman Tim May, who went 2-for-4 with two runs scored and one RBI in the Cornell win.

"We do well when the games are close," Cole said. "The problem is, when we get behind too early and too big, we can't dig ourselves out of it. We want to keep it within striking distance and hopefully jump out to a lead."

The Rider squad also boasts a solid pitching staff, with several weapons on the mound.

The staff as a whole has a combined ERA of 5.71, compared to Penn's 8.52.

But, as Cole explains, it is a mid-week game, and both teams are coming off of weekend conference games.

As a result, both sides will most likely utilize pitchers from their respective bullpens, somewhat lessening the pitching threat that Rider would usually present.

Still, the Broncs have been playing well and could pose a problem for Penn, especially if the team hasn't broken out of last weekend's slump.

Winning this game could boost the Quakers' Ivy title hopes -- a victory today could give the team the confidence they need to defeat the current division-leading Princeton squad this weekend.

"We definitely still have confidence to play well," May explained. "I think if we could pull out a win [against Rider], it would be pretty crucial to ... getting some momentum going into the games against Princeton."

The Quakers will look to redeem themselves today at Meiklejohn Stadium at 3 p.m.

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