After two quiet losses Wednesday in which Penn softball scored just three runs in two games against Temple, the team is no doubt looking for the bats to show up.
This weekend's doubleheaders against Cornell (27-7, 6-2 Ivy) could be just the opportunity the Quakers (9-20-1, 4-4) need to erase any lingering bad memories of the Temple games. With Penn just two games behind first-place Cornell in the South Division, this weekend is crucial to its standing in the league.
"It's pretty critical," coach Leslie King said. "We're looking at it as an opportunity to make up some ground on them. It's big, there's no doubt."
But defeating Cornell is a tall task. The Big Red are currently leading the South Division in part because of their strong hitting. They scored 23 total runs against Dartmouth and Harvard in last weekend's doubleheaders.
One Cornell threat is junior Ashley Garvey, named Ivy League Player of the Week last week after homering twice and notching a .615 batting average over that span. Elise Menaker, a junior infielder, earned the same honor last month after recording 17 hits in a week.
Cornell's strength is not limited to offense, however. In the first weekend of Ivy League play, sophomore Elizabeth Dalrymple posted an earned run average of 1.45 and struck out 13 batters. With an overall ERA of 1.03, Dalrymple has accumulated a 10-1 record, making her one of the most dominant pitchers Penn will likely face in the conference.
But the Quakers have also been doing well in Ivy play recently. Penn lost the first game of its doubleheader against Brown last weekend but then came back to win the nightcap and sweep Yale the next day.
Runs were in no short supply, either, and they did not all come from one or two players. In the first game against Yale, four different Penn players recorded hits, and in the second game that number grew to six. With 27 total runs scored over the weekend, Penn is hoping the low output against Temple was just a fluke.
"I don't see it carrying forward," said King, who believes the team needs to put the losses behind them to focus on tomorrow and Sunday. "We had a good weekend last weekend. That's given us a lot of confidence moving forward."
Last weekend the team showed how capable it is of rallying from deficits, a lesson that is particularly relevant after Wednesday's results. With only three different Ivy League teams left on the schedule, perseverance is no longer an option but a requirement for beating Cornell and subsequently finishing the season strong.
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