PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania baseball team just keeps on winning, extending its season-best win streak to six consecutive games after two big victories over Harvard to open Ivy League play Saturday afternoon at Tommy Lasorda Field at Meiklejohn Stadium.
The Quakers (7-9, 2-0 Ivy) walked off the Crimson (0-15, 0-2 Ivy) in the first game to earn a 5-4 victory and then used a strong outing from freshman
Sebastian Haggard to pick up a 6-3 win in the nightcap.
Penn has already clinched the first series of the second season and will go for the sweep on Sunday at noon.
Quaker Notemeal
*Penn begins its Ivy campaign with a series victory for the second straight year. Last season, the Quakers swept Brown at Tommy Lasorda Field.
*The Quakers have won six consecutive games for the first time since April 9-19, 2023. Penn began that streak with a 5-2 home victory over Princeton.
*Pokrovsky gave the Quakers their first walk-off win since exactly a year ago against Brown at Tommy Lasorda Field.
Ryan Taylor had a walk-off knock in the 11th inning to pick up Penn's second win in the Ivy-opening series.
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Qwynn Ahearn (2-for-4),
Jarrett Pokrovsky (2-for-5), and
Gavin Collins (2-for-3) all had multi-hit games for the Quakers in Game 1. Collins drove in the first two runs of the game on a double (in the fourth) and a homer (in the seventh).
*Game 1 starter
Noah Millikan was excellent in earning the no decision, striking out six (with no walks) over seven strong. He allowed just two runs and scattered six hits.
*The bullpen did their thing once again as
Marty Coyne allowed zero earned runs in 2.2 innings, striking out three and
Thomas Shurtleff tossed 1.1 shutout frames with two Ks and two hits allowed.
John Cerwinski (1-1) earned his first win of the season after allowing no earned runs on two hits.
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Davis Baker led the Penn offense in Game 2 with a 3-for-5 performance. He also drove in two runs and scored twice. He tallied both a double and a home run in the win.
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Connor Chavez was 1-for-1 with two sacrifice flies and two RBIs, also walking once.
Nick Spaventa went 1-for-2 at the plate with two walks and two runs.
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Sebastian Haggard (2-0) flat-out dealt to pick up his second win of the year. He went seven full innings, allowing just two runs on four hits with eight strikeouts. He allowed no walks and had a shutout going until the seventh.
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Josh Katz came into the game in the eighth with a two-run lead and recorded six outs to claim his first save of the year. He struck out three batters and gave up just one run on two hits.
How It Happened (Game 1)
After a strong first two innings from Millikan, Harvard broke a scoreless tie in the third inning with a two-run single.
The Quakers responded in the fourth when Collins doubled in Spaventa to cut the deficit to 2-1.
The teams traded zeros until the seventh inning, when Penn tied the game up at 2-2 in the seventh on Collins' solo homer to left. Harvard regained the lead in the eighth on an error, but Penn answered back immediately in the bottom of the ninth when Spaventa scored pinch runner
Andrew Ruggeri—who got in the game after Ahearn led off the frame with a double—on a sacrifice fly.
Cerwinski relieved
Thomas Shurtleff in the 10th inning, but Harvard pushed across another run to go back ahead, 4-3. Cerwinski kept his cool and avoided additional trouble by leaving two runners on base despite three errors from the Penn defense.
In the bottom of the 10th, with the bases juiced and one out, Pokrovsky came through in the clutch with a walk-off RBI single off the right-field fence to clinch the 5-4 victory.
How It Happened (Game 2)
Both starting pitchers retired their respective sides in order to begin the contest, while Penn's offense struck first in the second when
Gavin Degnan walked with the bases loaded to score a run and then a sacrifice fly from
Connor Chavez brought in Spaventa to take a 2-0 lead.
Davis Baker made it a 3-0 advantage when he belted a solo shot to right center field and the Quakers added a fourth on Chavez's second sac-fly of the day.
The story of the afternoon was Haggard, who had himself a tremendous outing in his first home appearance. He struck out four Harvard batters from the end of the fourth inning to the start of the fifth and then punched out another in the sixth.
However, his shutout bid came to an end in the top of the seventh inning when the Crimson hit back-to-back homers off the bats of Fang and Colosante to cut the Penn lead in half at 4-2. He managed to set down back-to-back hitters to get out of the inning without any more damage.
Katz relieved Haggard in the eighth, retiring the first batter he faced 3-1, and then recorded back-to-back punchouts to give the offense another opportunity to get insurance runs.
Chavez led off the eighth with a four-pitch walk and then got over to second on Taylor's sacrifice bunt. Baker singled in Chavez to extend the lead to 5-2. Then, Collins brought in Baker on an RBI single to give the Quakers a 6-2 cushion.
Cerwinski surrendered a run on Fang's RBI double, but got Harvard to fly out twice to end the game and seal the doubleheader sweep.
Up Next
Penn wraps up the series with Harvard on Sunday at noon, looking for its second straight three-game series sweep. The contest will be streamed live on ESPN+ and live stats will be provided.
For the latest on Penn baseball, follow @PennBaseball on X (formerly Twitter), @Penn_Baseball on Instagram, and on the web at PennAthletics.com.
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