Penn President Amy Gutmann arrived at Meiklejohn Stadium in the bottom of the fifth inning of Saturday's first game against Brown, with the Quakers trailing 7-0. And with two outs and nobody on base, it looked like Gutmann's famous luck at Penn sporting events would bring the Quakers back from the dead.
First, an error on sophomore Scott Graham's routine groundball to short. Then, a walk to junior Doug Brown. Three singles and a double later, it was 7-4 and Penn was back in the game.
But Brown's powerful offense was too much for the Quakers, and the Bears went on to win that game 9-6 and then the second game 19-5.
The Quakers made the scores closer yesterday against Yale, but the results were the same, with the Elis winning 4-3 and 10-5.
The losses made it eight straight for Penn (6-18, 2-6 Ivy) since the Quakers' five wins in six games two weeks ago.
Brown (3-13, 3-1) came to Philadelphia winless, but pounded out 35 hits to increase its league-leading batting average to .317.
Almost a quarter of those hits came off the bat of Bryan Tews. He was 8-for-10 with six RBIs, two doubles, a home run and six runs scored in the doubleheader.
He even pitched a complete game in Game 1, allowing only two earned runs on eight Penn hits.
"Our preseason schedule is one of the toughest in the Ivy League," Tews said of a slate that included six games against nationally ranked opponents.
Brown also made only two errors all day, something that kept the Quakers from mounting big innings.
"We made the routine plays -- that's all we asked," Tews said.
Penn gave up four unearned runs Saturday (one in Game 1 and three in Game 2), but none of the errors had a major impact on the game.
Instead, poor pitching was the Quakers' downfall.
"We were just leaving balls right in the middle of the plate, up, and you just can't do that with good hitters," Penn coach John Cole said.
Junior centerfielder Joey Boaen had a successful Saturday, going 5-for-9 with three RBIs, but neither he nor Cole said they could think of positives from the day.
"We didn't come to play today," Boaen said, adding that maybe the Quakers would be more motivated to win yesterday.
Motivation or not, the Quakers were too inconsistent against Yale (14-10, 3-1) the next day to get even one win.
Penn battled back in Game 1 from deficits of 2-1 and 3-2 to tie the game at three in the bottom of the sixth on a bloop single, a bad-hop single past third, a missed double-play ball which turned into a fielder's choice and a 25-foot single down the third base line that was mishandled by Elis reliever Matt Fealey.
But in the top of the seventh, senior starter Brian Cirri allowed a leadoff single to Charles Bush. Brown came in for Penn, and the next batter sacrificed pinch runner Dan Soltman to second. Then, Josh Cox blooped a single to left and the eventual winning run scored.
Penn took a 5-1 lead in Game 2, but senior starter Sean Abate -- who is usually a first baseman -- tired in the fourth, allowing five runs in the frame.
Brown pitched the final 5 2/3 innings, but he allowed four runs, two of which were earned.
"We needed to try to win this ballgame," Cole said of why he kept Brown in for so long.
Lack of timely hitting by Penn and clutch hitting by Yale prevented the Quakers from getting back into the game.
"We just didn't put any pressure on them" after the Elis took the lead, Cole said.
But it didn't work out for the Quakers, who just couldn't put forth a consistent effort yesterday.
Sophomore infielder Alex Nwaka had three hits in six at-bats yesterday, saying he felt "more comfortable than usual," but he pointed out that the lack of consistency hurt Penn in the end.
Despite the adversity, both Cole and Nwaka said they felt that the team was improving and that it will turn the corner soon.
"We'll come to work tomorrow, keep working at it, stay positive, keep fighting, and we're going to get this thing turned around," Cole said.
"It will come in time," Nwaka said.
