PHILADELPHIA - Jurie Joyner, Clare Sebastianelli, and Katie Petroski all hit home runs as the University of Pennsylvania softball team defeated Drexel 7-4 on Wednesday afternoon at Penn Park. The Quakers are now winners of five straight and will travel to Cambridge to take on first place Harvard who leads Penn by just a game this weekend. 

Inside the Numbers

* The Quakers have won five straight games and are winners of eight of their last nine. 

* Penn has taken the last three games in the all-time series against Drexel. 

* The Red and Blue hit three home runs against the Dragons. It's the most home runs they've hit in a game since April 22nd last season against Cornell. 

* The last five game win streak for the Quakers came at the end of the last season when they finished the year winning six in a row. 

* Sam Pederson improved her hitting streak to 14 games. With a hit in her next game she will tie the program record for most consecutive games with a hit.

* Pederson hit her fourth triple of the season which is twice as many as she had hit her entire career coming into 2018. Two more triples this season and she will break the all-time record of five. 

* Jurie Joyner's home run was the second of the season for the senior and the 18th of her career. She ranks fourth in program history in home runs. 

* Katie Petroski hit her second home run of the season. She had just one home run coming into the year and now has hit two within the last week. 

* Jennifer Brann earned her first career save. In two innings pitched she allowed zero runs and struck out four of the six batters she faced. 

* Abigail Abramson earned the win in the circle. She now leads the pitching staff with four. 

How it Happened

Wednesday afternoon at Penn Park featured an all University City match-up as the Quakers took on Drexel. Right away in the first inning, it was Penn who took the lead. Jurie Joyner hit her 18th RBI of the season to bring home Jessica England to go up 1-0. 

Up 2-1 in the third, it was once again Joyner who got the Quaker bats going. The senior hit her 18th career home run, a solo shot to left field, to put her team up two. Three batters later, Molly Oretsky hit a long double to bring in Abramson and Lucy Yang as the Quakers took a commanding 5-1 lead. 

While in control, the Dragons would not go away climbing back to within one. However, just when they needed it, back-to-back solo home runs in the fifth by Clare Sebastianelli and Katie Petroski gave the Red and Blue a three run cushion heading into the final two innings. 

With the bases loaded in the sixth, Jennifer Brann came in for Ciana Curran. The sophomore pitcher and reigning Ivy League Pitcher of the Week forced a fly out to left on the first batter she faced and struck out the next two leaving the bases loaded to retire the side. 

In the final inning, Brann continued her command in the circle. She struck out the first two batters to make it four in a row and forced a pop-up to close the game earning her first career save. 

What's Next

The Quakers are one game behind Harvard in the Ivy League standings and will have a chance to change that this weekend as they travel to Cambridge for a three-game series against the Crimson.