Softball tries to slug its way into Ivy race

Despite a tough go-round against Cornell this past weekend, the Quakers are determined to keep themselves in contention for the Ivy League title.

Friday and Saturday’s games against Columbia (16-25, 6-10 Ivy) will prove critical to Penn’s title chase.

The team lost to Delaware last night, 6-2, in its final tune-up before the home-and-home series with the Lions.

Mikenzie Voves took the loss after giving up three runs in the third to the Blue Hens. The Quakers (15-19-1, 6-8) got two back in the fifth after Kristen Johnson scored on a double by Elysse Gorney, who was singled home by Stephanie Caso later in the frame.

But Delaware tagged reliever Taylor Tieman for three in the bottom-half of the sixth inning to effectively seal the game.

However, senior captain and catcher Alisha Prystowsky, who is one RBI short of becoming the second player in the Ivy League with 30 runs and 30 RBI this season, adamantly asserted that her team “is 100-percent capable of beating [Columbia]. When we play well, we’re as good as any team.”

Currently batting .378, Prystowsky has reason to be confident. She has scored 30 runs on 37 hits so far this season and has hit five homers. But she was quick to emphasize that if the Quakers are able to overcome Columbia this weekend, it will be attributable to a team effort.

“There’s been this collective energy going into our games recently,” she said. “We’ve been setting basic goals as a team, and it’s created this collective fire.”

That fire was certainly evident in the early going against Cornell last Friday, when Penn jumped out to a 4-1 lead after three innings, but it wasn’t enough to stay on top, as the pitching scuffled in the 8-6 setback.

“We’re a young team,” Prystowsky said of the losses. “We need to come out strong and keep our heads up. We need to break the game down and play every single inning hard.”

Prystowsky cited Columbia’s strong pitching rotation as a challenge the Quakers will have to overcome. The Lions’ top pitcher, Maggie Johnson, has a 2.04 earned run average over 22 starts. Prophet Gaspard is not far behind with a 2.49 ERA and a 12-10 record over 25 starts. However, the Lions only have two batters currently hitting over .300 and a cumulative batting average of .269, compared to Penn’s five players batting over .300 and team average of .278.

Penn has also proved that it can hit some of the strongest pitchers in the league, putting up eight hits against one of the leading pitchers in the Ivy League, Cornell’s Elizabeth Dalrymple (1.57 ERA).

The Quakers have nine players who have hit at least two home runs this season and are second in the Ivy League in slugging percentage (.431) and on-base percentage (.372).

Prystowsky, however, does not feel that these impressive numbers are the Red and Blue’s strongest suits.

“We have strong pitching, we have strong batters, but our biggest advantage is our ability to play as a team,” she said. “We’re not going to go out there and hit seven home runs, but we’re going to go out there and put a bunch of hits and a bunch of plays together, and that’s what’s going to win us games.”

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