PHILADELPHIA - The University of Pennsylvania baseball team wraps the 2023 regular season this weekend with a home series against Columbia in the first games between the programs since last season's Ivy League Playoff Series.
 
Penn has clinched a berth in the Ivy League Tournament next weekend, though the team's seeding in that tournament and the tournament's location are both still to be determined.
 
Penn and Harvard are currently tied for first in the conference with Harvard owning the tiebreaker by virtue of their series win over the Quakers at the end of March. Harvard will host the Ivy League Tournament if current standings hold.
 
The Quakers will win the outright regular season title and host the tournament if they win one more game than Harvard this weekend.
 
Penn (26-14, 13-5 Ivy) vs. Columbia (23-17, 11-7 Ivy)
Saturday, May 13 | 11:30 a.m. | WATCH | LIVE STATS
 
Penn (26-14, 13-5 Ivy) vs. Columbia (23-17, 11-7 Ivy)
Saturday, May 13 | 2:30 p.m. (approx.) | WATCH | LIVE STATS 
 
Penn (26-14, 13-5 Ivy) vs. Columbia (23-17, 11-7 Ivy)
Sunday, May 14 | 12:00 p.m. | WATCH | LIVE STATS
 
The Series: Columbia
The teams have squared off 271 times since 1886, with Penn holding the series edge, 138-130 with three ties.
 
Previewing Penn
Penn has won its last five Ivy series after dropping two of three to Harvard five weeks ago, including taking two of three from Princeton, the only other Ancient Eight team to clinch an Ivy tournament berth thus far.  
 
The weekend starting trio of Cole Zaffiro, Owen Coady, and Ryan Dromboski all rank in the top 10 in conference play in ERA, strikeouts, and opponent batting average among qualified hurlers. Zaffiro is 2nd in ERA (2.25), 5th in opponent batting average (.203), and 9th in strikeouts (38). Dromboski is 1st in opponent batting average (.165), 3rd in strikeouts (48), and 6th in ERA (2.60). Coady is 4th in strikeouts (42), 5th in ERA (2.55), and 7th in opponent batting average (.213).
 
Ben Miller (.352), Cole Palis (.346), Jackson Appel (.324), and Wyatt Henseler (.315) are all hitting over .300 with Appel (1.060, 4th), Henseler (1.044, 5th), and Palis (1.004, 6th) all in the Top 10 in the league in OPS.
 
Previewing Columbia
The Lions had been averaging eight runs a game in conference play before suffering a sweep at the hands of Harvard two weekends ago, during which time they scored nine runs in three games.
 
The team enters the final weekend of the regular season with four everyday players hitting over .300 in Ivy action, led by Cole Hage's .415 mark, good for second among all conference batters, with his 1.163 OPS tops in the league. Weston Eberly (.357), Anton Lazits (.328) and Andy Blake (.307) round out the Lions' .300 hitters.
 
Andy Leon and Joe Sheets have pitched to virtually identical ERAs (4.71 for Sheets, 4.72 for Leon), while striking out 26 batters each in conference play, though Leon holds definitive edges in WHIP (1.41 to 1.55) and opponent batting average (.259 to .333).