PHILADELPHIA – It's baseball season! The University of Pennsylvania baseball team heads to Abilene, Texas this weekend to begin its 2024 season, taking on Abilene Christian in a four-game series at Crutcher Scott Field.
 
First pitch Friday is set for 4:05 p.m. ET, with a doubleheader set to begin at 2 p.m. Saturday and a 2 p.m. matchup on Sunday afternoon.
 
This marks the first-ever meetings between Penn and ACU.
 
GAME 1-4: Penn (0-0, 0-0 Ivy) at Abilene Christian (3-2, 0-0 WAC)
February 23-25 | Watch (ESPN+) – Game 1, Watch (WAC International) – Game 2, Game 3, Game 4  | Live Stats – (Game 1, Game 2, Game 3, Game 4)
 
We're Back!
Fresh off their best season in program history in 2023, in which they won a single-season record 34 games and advanced to their first regional since 1995, the Quakers are back, attempting to become Ivy League regular season champions for the third consecutive season and repeat in the Ivy League Tournament.
 
Preseason Favorites
Penn was unanimously voted No. 1 in the Ivy League Preseason Poll, announced on Monday. The Quakers received all 16 first-place votes, leading to 128 points in a poll voted on by the league's sports information directors and one member of the media that covers each school.
 
Columbia was ranked second (101), Harvard in third (97), Princeton fourth (87), Yale fifth (66), Cornell sixth (37), with Brown (35) and Dartmouth (25) rounding out the field.
 
Returning All-Ivy
Led by 2023 Ivy League Coach of the Year John Yurkow, Penn has a returning major award winner in junior right-hander Ryan Dromboski. He went 7-3 in 13 starts, recording an ERA of 3.32 with 97 strikeouts and just 35 walks.
 
The Quakers also return six All-Ivy selections, Dromboski (first team), INF Wyatt Henseler (first), RHP Cole Zaffiro (first), INF Davis Baker (second), RHP/IF Carson Ozmer (HM) and UTIL Jarrett Pokrovsky (HM).
 
Quaker Notemeal
*Only two of Penn's five .300 or better hitters from 2023 are back on the roster this season. Henseler hit .321 in 50 games last season, as well as Baker (.316). Pokrovsky is the next closest at .292.
 
*18 of the Quakers' 46 home runs last season were hit by Henseler, who set both the single season and career record for dingers in 2023. The senior has 32 home runs over three seasons at Penn.
 
*Also of note on Henseler, he enters the year on a 15-game hitting streak. He's also tied with Ryan Taylor for the longest reached-base streak entering the year at 15 straight games.
 
*Penn has three returning pitchers who had ERAs of 3.00 or lower in 2023 in Carson Ozmer (1.83), Eli Trop (2.37) and Cole Zaffiro (3.00). Ozmer and Trop were named to the NCBWA Stopper of the Year Watch List last week.
 
*Quaker pitching set a new single-season record for strikeouts last year with 520 as staff. Front line starters Dromboski (97) and Zaffiro (80) combined for 177 of them, while Trop (36), Ozmer (35), Tommy Delany (35), Edward Sarti (25) and Will Tobin (24) total the next 120.
 
*Penn has some "gold glove" caliber fielders returning to the fold this year including catcher Asa Wilson, who had a perfect 1.000 fielding percentage in 2023 with 141 putouts on 149 chances with eight assists. He threw out three baserunners while playing 24 games last season. Ryan Taylor had 70 putouts on 107 chances with 34 fielding assists and just three errors, playing to a tune of .974 in his time spent mostly in the infield.
 
Scouting Abilene Christian
The Wildcats enter the weekend with a 3-2 overall record. Abilene Christian took three of four against Northern Illinois to open the campaign last week at home, but have fallen in consecutive contests as of late. On Wednesday, ACU fell to Oklahoma State, 8-4, at Globe Life Park in Arlington, home of the defending World Series champion Texas Rangers.
 
ACU has three batters hitting over .400 to begin the season in Garrett Williams (.500), DJ Van Atten (.412) and Cade McGarrh (.400). Williams (1.509), Van Atten (1.228) and Gino D'Alessio (1.282) lead the team in OPS. D'Alessio has a team-high three home runs and 10 RBI.
 
Starters Austin Glaze and Iain Campa both earned wins in their season debuts against NIU and both have an ERA of 1.80 heading into the weekend. Campa leads the rotation with nine strikeouts over five innings of work.
 
Follow The Action
Friday's season opener will be streamed live on ESPN+ while the remaining three games will be streamed through WAC International. Live stats will be provided for all four games this weekend.
 
For the latest on Penn baseball, follow @PennBaseball on X (formerly Twitter), @Penn_Baseball on Instagram, and on the web at PennAthletics.com.