PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania baseball team's high-powered offense was limited to just eight hits Saturday, but strong pitching and defense helped the Quakers earn a split of their Ivy League doubleheader with Yale on Saturday, with the Bulldogs taking Game 1, 4-0, and the Red and Blue winning in wild fashion in Game 2, 1-0.
QUAKER NOTEMEAL
* Penn picked up its first 1-0 win since April 13, 2019 against Princeton, and its first walk-off since knocking off Brown in 13 innings exactly 52 weeks ago (April 23, 2022).
* Game 2 starter
Cole Zaffiro set a career-high with 10 strikeouts, surpassing his previous top mark of nine, set earlier this season against Harvard. Zaffiro extended his scoreless streak to 14.1 innings, during which time he's struck out 14 batters and allowed just five hits.
*
Eli Trop earned the win in Game 2, striking out all three batters he faced, all with 95+ MPH fastballs.
*
Cole Palis extended his reached base safely streak to 23 games and
Davis Baker extended his streak to 16 straight games.
* The Quakers won a game recording three hits or fewer for the first time since March 19, 2016 against Binghamton.
HOW IT HAPPENED – Game 1
The Bulldogs went up 1-0 three batters in to the game, and with two on and one out, were threatening to add on some early insurance, but the Quakers turned a fly out to center into a double play to end the inning.
After conceding another run in the second, starter
Owen Coady locked in, retiring 11 in a row before Yale loaded the bases with no one out in the sixth, threatening to break the game open. As it did in the first inning, Penn's defense came through again, with
Calvin Brown providing a highlight reel play in right field.
Penn escaped the inning unscathed, but Yale utilized small ball to tack on two more runs in the eighth. The Quakers loaded the bases with one out on a trio of walks in the bottom of the inning, but could not push a run across.
The Red and Blue put two more on with one out in the ninth, but stranded both as Yale took the series opener.
HOW IT HAPPENED – Game 2
Zaffiro and Yale starter Colton Shaw turned in one of the great pitchers' duels of the season, with the two trading zeroes back and forth.
For Zaffiro, the junior struck out two batters in each of the first three innings, then struck out three more in the fourth, all without letting a runner past second base. The Manhasset, N.Y. native picked up No. 10 to end the sixth inning, stranding a pair in the process.
After Zaffiro exited following a leadoff walk in the seventh,
Edward Sarti came on in relief and eventually escaped a two-on, one-out threat with a double play.
With one on and one out in the eighth,
Will Tobin showed his athleticism, starting a highlight-reel double play himself
Shaw kept the Quaker bats quiet, conceding just six baserunners total in eight innings of work, but Penn got to reliever Jimmy Chatfield in the ninth.
With one out, Baker doubled down the right field line, leading Yale to intentionally walk
Ben Miller.
Ryan Taylor followed with a walk to load the bases, fighting back from a 1-2 count. After a strikeout left things up to
Jarrett Pokrovsky, a wild pitch to the backstop turned into a footrace between Baker and Chatfield, which the three-time Ivy League Rookie of the Week won, as the Quaker dugout came pouring out onto the field.
Tommy Lasorda Field Celebration
Prior to the start of Game 1, an on-field ceremony was held, recognizing alumni and contributors to the Tommy Lasorda Field at Meiklejohn Stadium renovation project, featuring speeches from, among others, T. Gibbs Kane, Jr. W'69 Director of Athletics and Recreation Alanna Shanahan, Penn President M. Elizabeth Magill, 16-year Major League Baseball veteran Jerry Royster, MLB Hall of Famer Mike Piazza, Laura Lasorda (daughter of Tommy), and transformational gift donor Warren Lichtenstein, C'87.
Up Next
The teams wrap the series with a rubber game tomorrow afternoon, first pitch scheduled for 12 p.m.
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