Last year, the Penn softball team limped through the season with only three pitchers. To say that the tables have turned would be an understatement.
Two Columbia starters threw and lost complete games against Penn on Sunday. The exact same happened yesterday, as the Quakers swept a doubleheader 5-4 and 13-5.
The Lions (9-14, 0-4 Ivy) were in striking distance in game one, and starter Amanda Snyder looked poised to give Columbia its first Ivy win.
But Penn's Stephanie Reichert had other ideas. With her team down one in the sixth, Reichert laced a two-run homer over the right-field fence.
"We've always called her 'The Specialist,' because she's our designated player . the kids today were laughing around saying they were going to call her 'Clutch,'" Penn coach Leslie King said.
When it came time for Penn (12-6, 4-0) to lock down a one-run lead in the last inning, King tapped resources her counterpart lacked.
After Olivia Mauro walked a pair to put runners on first and second with one out, Penn's coach went to Erin Boyle to close the deal.
Boyle responded to the challenge, forcing a strikeout and a weak pop-up to end the game.
"Just having five-six pitchers to utilize is a big advantage," King said. "Even if they're just giving you one inning here, one inning there."
Columbia would learn that lesson after trotting out Aimee Kemp to start game two.
Things were looking bright for the Lions early, as they jumped all over Penn starter Susan Miller. King went to rescue Miller after only four batters, but she got tagged for three earned runs after recording a single out.
Kemp could not manage any better. With no relief in sight, the Quakers cleaned house.
"We were just trying to take a lot of balls and wait for our pitch," Reichert said. "She ended up walking a lot of girls because of it."
There could have been a case to remove Kemp as early as the third inning. She consistently fell behind in the count, and was lucky to escape the inning after King waved a runner into an out at the plate.
But Kemp couldn't stem the tide forever. With the game tied 5-5 in the fifth, she intentionally walked the bases loaded. The next hitter, Keiko Uraguchi, walked on five pitches.
Reichert then blew the game open with a bases-clearing double.
Emily Denstedt pitched the rest of the game for Penn and earned the win.
Columbia coach Kayla Noonan was left standing in the dugout, lips pursed, to watch her team succumb to the mercy rule.
"I know they're struggling a little bit for pitching depth," King said. "I guess she was going with what she thought was her best pitching."
But Penn saw a clear flaw in that strategy, and pounced on it.
"It definitely helps when you see a pitcher for two days in a row," King said.
Noonan had two other pitchers available, she said. But she opted not to call on Danielle Pineda or Deanna Minuto.
"We have freshman pitchers," she said of Kemp and Snyder. "There are certain situations they need to find themselves in so they can learn how to work out of them."
But while that trial-by-fire approach put Columbia out of the league race after one weekend, Penn starts its Ivy schedule on the best possible foot.
