Senior pitcher Erin Boyle must have ice water running through her veins.
Boyle came in to "stop the bleeding," as she put it, after a rough first inning in the second game of Penn's doubleheader against Brown, when the Quakers opened the game by allowing five runs to score.
But she clamped down on the Brown lineup, leading the Quakers to a 14-6 victory and capping off a 3-1 record this weekend. Penn beat Brown in the early game Sunday 3-2, and split a doubleheader with Yale on Saturday, first losing 3-1 and then winning 7-6.
"Timely" and "clutch" hitting, according to senior Stephanie Reichert, led to the victories over Brown (14-10, 1-7 Ivy).
In the first game, Reichert hit a single in the fifth inning with the Quakers (17-11, 9-3) down 2-1, batting in two runners and putting Penn on top for good.
In the second contest, the Quakers "hit them where they couldn't catch them," said head coach Leslie King.
Penn teed off on the Brown pitchers, getting home runs from Julia Cheney, Stephanie Reichert and Annie Kinsey.
"We had a lot of baserunners from walks," said Reichert. After that, it was just a matter of "waiting for them to throw strikes."
Against Yale (15-9, 2-6), it was a different story for Penn, at least in the first game.
And at least in the batters' box.
"I don't like to blame games on umpires, but he had a really, really big strike zone," King said. "He . really took the bats out of our hands, I felt."
Five times, Penn batters struck out looking, leaving starting pitcher Emily Denstedt (7 IP, 8 H, 2 ER) wanting for run support. Cheney did knock in a homerun in the second inning, which was the only one the Quakers recorded in the losing effort.
The second game was business as usual for the Quakers' big bats.
After a sloppy first inning by the Elis, who allowed two runs to be batted in and one run stolen, Christina Khosravi slammed a home run in the second inning with Reichert on base, which put the Quakers up 5-1.
Yale, forced to play catch-up from then on, could not quite get it done, stranding two runners in the seventh inning as the Elis lost, 7-6.
Although the Quakers were successful this weekend, King had some issues with the team's first-inning performance.
"I would like us to try and get off to a better start," she said. "We're spotting teams runs that first inning at home . you don't really want to get yourself into that hole."
With the 3-1 record this weekend, the Quakers maintain their position in a first-place tie in the Ivy League South Division race with Cornell (26-7, 7-1). Penn plays the conference juggernaut Big Red next weekend.
First up, however, is city rival Villanova (16-15, 1-5 Big East) tomorrow.
