Baseball Returns to Harvard Seeking to Clinch ILCS Berth

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The University of Pennsylvania baseball team travels to Cambridge to wrap up their season series with Harvard on Sunday at Noon, looking to clinch a berth in the Ivy League Championship Series.

Penn (28-11, 14-3) vs. Harvard (17-20, 8-9)
Sunday, May 8 | 12 p.m. | WATCH | STATS

The Series: Harvard
Harvard has the series advantage with a 119-76-1 record against Penn dating back to 1886.

Penn is 11-5 against the Crimson under head coach John Yurkow, including wins in both games of a rain-shortened two-game set in early April, highlighted by a 27-6 Quakers victory in the opener.

NEWS AND NOTES: PENN
*Penn is three games up on Dartmouth in the loss column, and will clinch an ILCS berth with a win in any of their four remaining conference games, or a Big Green loss in any of their three remaining conference games.

*Among the conference leaders in multiple offensive categories all season, Penn enters the Crimson finale, second in the conference in batting average (.323), second in runs (166), second in slugging (.512), and first in on-base percentage (.423) in Ivy action. On the mound, the Quakers are first in ERA (3.60) by more than half a run, first in hits allowed (129), opponents' batting average (.225), and strikeouts (184).

*Following a 7-for-14 performance in Penn's Ivy series win over Yale last weekend, Ben Miller is now batting .426 in conference play, second among all hitters, while his1.209 OPS ranks fourth. Miller is one of just two players with an on-base percentage over .500 and slugging percentage over .600 in conference action.

*Kevin Eaise has been atop the leaderboard in Ivy League wins the whole season, and is currently two victories clear (six) of any other pitcher in the conference. He's also among the top five in strikeouts (39) and opponent batting average (.234) against Ancient Eight foes.

PENN BY THE NUMBERS
5 • Miller's five-hit game last Friday was the first by a Quaker this season and just the sixth for the program since 2013. Miller also became the first player with multiple 5-RBI games in a season under Yurkow.

29 • The Quakers are one victory shy of tying the program record for wins in a season, 29, set by the 1989 team that went to the NCAA Tournament.

32 • Jackson Appel has reached base safely in his last 32 games, hitting safely in all but three of them.

100 • Both Tommy Courtney and Craig Larsen surpassed 100 career starts during last weekend's series with Yale.

Scouting Harvard
The Crimson have dropped two of three Ivy series since the first two against the Quakers, suffering a sweep at the hands of Columbia and dropping two of three to Dartmouth, sandwiched around a series win over Princeton.

In conference play, Harvard is fourth in batting average (.296), runs (119), hits (185), slugging percentage (0.452), on-base percentage (0.375), as well as second in strikeouts (174) and fourth in batting average (.287)

Harvard has six batters hitting over .300 in conference play, with five of the six posting an OPS over .800. Will Jacobsen is hitting .361, Jake Berger's gone deep five times, and Logan Bravo's driven in 22 runs, all team-bests for conference play.

Jay Driver's made seven relief appearances in Ivy action, pitching to a 1.35 ERA (Penn being one of the two teams to score off him). Five different hurlers have made at least two conference starts, led by Jaren Zinn's six; Zinn's averaging just over five strikeouts per game in those starts.

#QuakeShow
#FightOnPenn

Print Friendly Version

Players Mentioned

#3 Jackson Appel: C; 6' 0"; Junior; S/R

#27 Tommy Courtney: OF; 5' 10"; Senior; L/R

#22 Kevin Eaise: RHP; 6' 2"; Senior; R/R

#18 Craig Larsen: INF; 6' 0"; Senior; R/R

#2 Ben Miller: UTIL; 6' 1"; Junior; R/R

Players Mentioned

#3 Jackson Appel
: 6' 0"; Junior; S/R
: C

#27 Tommy Courtney
: 5' 10"; Senior; L/R
: OF

#22 Kevin Eaise
: 6' 2"; Senior; R/R
: RHP

#18 Craig Larsen
: 6' 0"; Senior; R/R
: INF

#2 Ben Miller
: 6' 1"; Junior; R/R
: UTIL