The decimated women's softball team was only able to keep it together for so long.
Already at only 14 players, the roster was further whittled down to 11 thanks to illness and exams before yesterday's doubleheader at Delaware.
In fact, the situation was so dire that King rang up Penn soccer midfielder Natalie Capuano - who last played softball in high school - to temporarily join the team.
The Quakers split with the Blue Hens, winning the first game, 4-0, and getting mercied in the second, 9-1.
"We had to patch together a team; we had two people in the outfield [Kelsey Wolfe and Bridget McDugall] who had never played there before," coach Leslie King said. "I'm proud of how we played in the first game; unfortunately we didn't keep that up in the second. But I'll take the split."
In a surprise move, King deviated from the gameplan by starting freshman Jessie Lupardus in place of Emily Denstedt for game one.
The coach explained that the roster was too thin to have a designated hitter.
"We needed to hit our pitchers because we didn't have enough players," King said. "Emily's a little hurt, so I didn't want her running the bases, and there was a chance the second game would be rained out."
Pitching in her third straight game to begin her college career, Lupardus shut Delaware down. She went the distance, striking out eight and allowing just three hits.
It didn't hurt that she got some help from senior Christina Khosravi, whose three-run homer in the fifth gave the Quakers a comfortable 4-0 lead.
That wasn't the first time she's come through in a big spot - on Sunday she had a game-winning hit in the 11th inning against Lafayette.
"I feel like I focus more in those situations," she said. "All the pressure is on the pitcher when there are two, three runners on base."
But the Quakers couldn't breathe a sigh of relief just yet. And unfortunately for King, game two was not rained out.
In the second half of the twin bill, Penn's bats went silent Starting pitcher Emily Denstedt got chased in the first inning after surrendering four earned runs on five hits, while retiring just two batters.
"They came out firing and really jumped on us early," Khosravi said. "I think a lot of that was that they probably felt some urgency being down a game."
King added that the Quakers were just not as sharp, likely from fatigue and playing out of position. They made two errors, compared to none in the first game.
The game ended in the bottom of the fifth with runners on second and third for the Blue Hens. But they had already plated run number nine, which invokes softball's eight-run mercy rule.
With a fuller roster, freshmen would ordinarily not be thrown into the fire the way they have been. But it's been up to Khosravi and her co-captains to ease the younger players' transition to the college game.
"I like to joke around a lot, keep things light off the field, make sure everyone's laughing," Khosravi said.
She and the rest of the team are hoping that their next results will give them a bit more cause to smile.
