Senior catcher Asa Wilson celebrates a run against St. John’s on June 1, 2024.
Credit: Weining DingGoing into the last weekend of conference play, Penn baseball has already secured its spot in this year’s Ivy League tournament — giving it a chance to compete for its third Ivy title in a row. The team is currently 12-6, having swept Harvard, Cornell, and Princeton but dropped two games each against Dartmouth, Yale, and Columbia.
The team had a rough start before the Ivy season began, losing series against Florida State, Troy, and Delaware. But that wouldn’t define its season, and it began its conference season with a bang, sweeping Harvard. The following week was tense for the Quakers, as they dealt with a loss against Saint Joseph’s and two losses against Dartmouth, before they returned to take the final game of the series. That game, where the team won 5-1, kicked off a nine-game-long win streak, in which it beat Lafayette, swept Princeton and Cornell, and won its first game against Yale.
“We like to meet as a team a lot and just kind of remind ourselves of, you know, where we want to be at the end of the season and how we’re going to get to that goal with the championship. … It’s moments where we’re really reminding ourselves of that and then just remembering to kind of have fun, play for each other and just like, play the right way,” senior pitcher Will Tobin said. “It’s good momentum too, and momentum is everything in baseball, so we’re looking to get back on one of those soon.”
In its first matchup against Yale, in which one game went to the 10th inning, senior pitcher Noah Millikan was integral for the win. In 7.1 innings, he only allowed one run and three hits and struck out six batters.
Unfortunately, Penn baseball was unable to win the series, losing 4-7 and 4-8 in the following doubleheader. The issue wasn’t a lack of opportunity: It was the struggle to convert opportunities to scores. At multiple points throughout the day, there were players on base without a hit to bring them home.
“[The loss] was more by our own doing than anything. You know, Yale is a really good team; they basically just made less mistakes than us. We kind of let some energy slip and just let little things slip up. And you know, kudos to them for not slipping up,” Tobin said. “Hopefully, when we see them again in the tournament, inevitably, we’ll come at full force and at 100% and kind of remember two weekends ago and how it made us feel afterwards."
An interlude from Ivy play provided yet another strong win for the team, as it beat Rider 20-16. But a tough series against Columbia followed, where it was only able to take the middle game of the series.The third game was particularly disappointing, which Columbia won 11-3.
Even though the series didn’t go the team’s way, it had its positive moments. Four players had multi-hit games: junior Jarrett Pokrovsky, sophomore outfielder Gavin Collins, sophomore infielder Nick Spaventa, and freshman catcher Ernie Echevarria. Echevarria also hit a home run, his second of the year, in the second game. Pokrovsky reached 21 doubles on the year, putting him one away from tying the program record.
The Quakers can’t put the Bulldogs and the Lions behind them yet, however, as all three teams have secured their spots in the playoffs.
As its third year in the playoffs, the team is familiar with playing challenging teams.
“Kind of the same thing as last year, we got slapped around by Columbia in the regular season, and we lost two more series: Princeton and then Cornell also. So we’re kind of in the same boat,” Tobin said. “Obviously that’s not where we want to be, but at the end of the day, we can learn a lot from the losses we have. You know, it’s encouraging after these two past series losses, the guys are still excited to get back to practice.”
But before the team can focus on achieving a three-peat at the tournament, beating Brown is the more immediate concern. While its spot in the tournament is already guaranteed, a sweep this weekend would give them a better seed.
“It’s just a great weekend to go in there, get a sweep, and get a ton of momentum going into the tournament. Because, you know, you want to be playing the best baseball and you kind of want to have the hot hand going into the tournament,” Tobin said.
The team is traveling to Providence, R.I. for a three-game series that begins on Friday, before preparing to face Yale, Columbia, and the currently undecided last team to qualify for the Ivy League Tournament.
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