If there were ever a time when one person could impact an entire weekend of softball, this was it.
Quakers freshman pitcher Jessie Lupardus left her mark on the weekend as Penn hosted a pair of doubleheaders against Yale and Brown.
Going in with the lowest earned run average in all of Division-I softball (0.36), she picked up right where she left off, winning three out of the four games for the Quakers while giving up a total of four runs.
In game one against Yale, the Red and Blue struggled at the plate and were behind 2-0 for most of the game. But they scraped together runs in the sixth and seventh to bring the game to extra innings.
The Quakers only needed one more at-bat to win the game. Junior Anna Puglisi lined a single to left-center field, scoring Alisha Prystowsky.
"I was just trying to relax and get my pitch," Puglisi said. "I was trying to put it in play somewhere."
On the mound, Lupardus picked up her first win of the weekend, as she improved to 10-2, giving up only five hits in all eight innings of work. She also added nine strikeouts and zero walks.
"I was encouraged by our team's determination when we were behind and that can only be a positive thing moving forward," coach Leslie King said.
In game two, the Quakers again dug themselves a hole, but this time they could not dig their way out. Through five-and-a-half innings, Yale was burying them, 9-0. Penn managed to add five runs in the last two innings to make the final a more respectable 9-5, but the Bulldogs' offense was too much to overcome.
The pitching duo of junior Emily Denstedt and freshman Taylor Tieman struggled, giving up five earned runs, 11 hits and four walks.
"It's great that we know we can come back," senior co-captain Annie Kinsey said.
"But we gave them a lot of runs and trying to get pumped up in the sixth and seventh and come back is hard to do. We gotta get on them early."
On Sunday, King again turned to her ace, and the Quakers won again. Christina Khosravi, however, was just as impressive.
The shortstop racked up five hits, eight runs batted in and two home runs, more than enough to support Lupardus.
In game one, Lupardus pitched a three-hit complete game shutout, striking out nine.
"It was just one of those days where it's easy to come out to the mound and every time you throw it's going to go to the spot no matter what you do," she said.
Khosravi gave the Quakers the lead they were looking for in the bottom of the first, as she jacked a three-run shot to give the Quakers the early 3-0 lead, which they never gave back.
"We definitely had a goal that we wanted to score first because that would keep the momentum on our side," Khosravi said. "That helped us out for the rest of the game."
Game two looked like a deja vu that the Quakers did not want to repeat; just like against Yale, Penn was down 2-0 in the bottom of the third inning.
But the Red and Blue bats came alive in a big way, as Penn added 11 runs in the next four innings - ultimately ending the game on the mercy rule.
Khosravi went 4-for-4 with five RBI and two runs scored. She was a triple shy of the cycle, hitting a homer, two doubles and a single.
Denstedt started the game, but Lupardus came in to pitch the final 3.1 innings to solidify the win.
"Every win in the Ivy League is important, so picking up three this weekend was big," King said.
