PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania softball team returns to Penn Park on Wednesday, April 20 for a midweek game against its 33rd Street neighbor the Drexel Dragons. First pitch is scheduled for 4 p.m. Penn enters Wednesday's contest 9-24 and 5-7 in Ivy play while Drexel is 20-15 overall and 4-8 in CAA contests.  
 
Wednesday, April 20
Penn Park | Philadelphia, Pa.
vs. Drexel – 4 p.m.
Watch | Live Stats

Previewing Penn
Penn is coming off a loss at Saint Joseph's and despite a second inning grand slam for the Hawks, Penn pitching held the home team's bats in check, stranding eight Hawks on base and combining to throw five shutout innings. Emma Nedley drove in both runs in the 4-2 loss. Her first RBI base hit came in the fourth inning as she drove in Sarah Schneider from second to make it 4-1. Two innings later, Nedley came up to the plate again with runners on and singled through the right side to drive in Madison Bauerle from second to make it 4-2.

Sarah Schneider leads the Penn offense in several categories including batting average (.323), hits (32), runs scored (27), RBI (19), home runs (9), doubles (9), and stolen bases (8). Brianna Brown is currently on a season-high six-game hit streak dating back to the series finale against Cornell. She also has one of two triples hit by a Quaker in 2022, Ashley Waco collected the other triple in Penn's season opener at Hampton.

Olivia Szewczyk leads the Penn pitching with a 4.42 ERA in 25.1 innings pitched. Julia Longo has seen the most time in the circle, she is 4-12 with a 6.22 ERA in 81 innings pitched and have struck out a team-high 49 batters.

Previewing the Dragons
Drexel is scheduled to host Villanova on Tuesday at 3 p.m. at home. They enter the Villanova game having lost all three games at Elon over the weekend. The Dragons scored first and last in the series finale at Elon, scoring three in the first and one in the seventh. However, the Phoenix put up a five spot in the fifth inning to take a lead they would not relinquish and complete the series sweep of Drexel.

Kristi DiMeo is the only Dragon with a plus .400 batting average as her .414 average leads the offense. Drexel is out scoring its opponents by 63 runs and are averaging just under six runs a game. Of their core group of starters, all eight are totaling 10+ RBI on the season. Ashley Errico (32) and DiMeo (30) total for 62 of the teams 187 RBI. The Dragons are not shy on the base paths as they have 31 stolen bases on 35 attempts. Sarah Clinton leads the team with 13 stolen bases in 14 attempts. Grace Abbonizio is 7-for-7 in stolen bases while Jackie Masone is 4-for-4.

In the circle for the Dragons, Brooklyn Daly is 9-4 with a 3.68 ERA in a team-leading 89.1 innings pitched while Lindsey Nelson is 4-5 with a team-leading 3.25 ERA in 66.2 innings pitched.

PENN NEWS AND NOTES
*Sarah Schneider leads the team in batting average (.323), hits (32), runs scored (27), RBI (19), doubles (9) and HR (9).
*On the bases, Penn has been strategic and successful as it has 21 stolen bases in 25 attempts. S. Schneider leads the team with eight stolen bases in nine attempts.
*Penn has had six multi-homer game this season. The latest came when S. Schneider and Bella Fiorentino both connected in an 11-5 loss at Harvard. They also have recorded multiple home runs against Fresno State (Anderson, Mortimer), Utah (Fiorentino, Nedley), Delaware State (Anderson, Nedley), Columbia (S. Schneider, McKelvey), Brown (S. Schneider, Mortimer), and Cornell (S. Schneider, Phillips).   

NUMBERS OF NOTE
24• S. Schneider (9), Anderson (4), Emma Nedley (3), Bella Fiorentino (3), Julia Mortimer (2), and Laurel McKelvey, Corrie Phillips and Julia Schneider have combined for Penn's 24 home runs on the season
21 • Penn has 21 stolen bases in 25 attempts on the season, Sarah Schneider has eight of the 21 stolen bases
81.0 • Julia Longo leads the pitching staff with 81.0 innings pitched
117 • As a staff, Penn pitching has struck out 117 batters.