A wild win for Penn baseball opened a 2-2 weekend that still left them atop the divisional standings.
Coach John Cole called Saturday’s early game at Yale, which the Quakers took 2-0 in 10 innings, “one of the best baseball games I’ve ever been a part of.”
Penn (15-12, 6-2 Ivy) had four outfield assists in the last three innings, including three at home when the game was still scoreless. Seniors Adrian Lorenzo and Jeremy Maas each threw out a pair of runners.
“It’s just unheard of,” Cole said.
The play of the defense backed a lights-out pitching performance by senior Paul Cusick, who pitched eight innings of five-hit ball with 11 strikeouts.
“Paul Cusick was just tremendous,” Cole said, referring to him as a “frontline starter.”
Penn’s defensive success was fleeting, however, as the team’s 13-6 loss to the Bulldogs (15-12, 4-4) was characterized by fielding mishaps. The team committed five errors and five of starter Chris McNulty’s 12 runs allowed were unearned.
The Quakers’ offense came alive in the early game of Sunday’s doubleheader against Brown, a 14-5 Penn win.
The team used a six-run third inning to take the lead. Sophomore Greg Zebrack went 4-for-4 with a home run and three RBI. Junior Derek Vigoa added three hits and four RBI of his own in the effort.
But once again, the Red and Blue could not maintain the driving force behind their success in the late game, falling, 4-2, to the Bears (6-18, 4-4) as their offense sputtered.
“It’s baseball,” Vigoa said on the Quakers’ inconsistency this weekend. “Some days you’re not going to hit well.”
“You’ve just got to find a way [to win],” he added.
Despite a somewhat disappointing weekend, Penn is still tied with Princeton for first in the Lou Gehrig division of the Ivy League.
The Quakers are off to their best conference start during Cole’s six years at the helm. They have not won the Gehrig Division since 2007 and haven’t captured the overall crown since 1995.
“It’s definitely a positive to start on top and be in the driver’s seat,” Vigoa said.
The team had taken seven of eight games coming into the weekend and has a huge four-game set with the Tigers at home this weekend after a game Wednesday at La Salle.
“These group of guys really are tough,” Vigoa said. “We fight every game. We find ways to win. We’re not scared.”
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