PHILADELPHIA – It's starting to become crunch time for the University of Pennsylvania baseball team in the program's quest for another Ivy League championship, continuing this weekend when Yale visits Tommy Lasorda Field at Meiklejohn Stadium for a three-game series.
 
The Quakers and Bulldogs will contest a doubleheader Saturday beginning at 11:30 a.m. followed by a single game Sunday at noon. All three games will be streamed live on ESPN+.
 
This series is important in that it's a battle for first place in the Ivy League standings with Penn—on a season-best eight-game win streak—currently claiming pole position with a 10-2 record, while Yale and Columbia are tied for second at 8-4 with nine conference games remaining in the regular season.
 
GAME 29-31: Penn (16-12, 10-2 Ivy) vs. Yale (20-11, 8-4 Ivy)
April 19-20 | Tommy Lasorda Field at Meiklejohn Stadium | Philadelphia, Pa.
Watch (ESPN+) | Live Stats – Game 1, Game 2, Game 3 | Program (PDF)
 
Hot Streaking
Penn has certainly been on a hot streak over the past month, currently riding a season-best eight-game winning streak while going 15-3 from March 14 to April 14.
 
The spell is the third-longest winning streak in the nation and is the Quakers' second winning streak of seven or more games in a row in the last month as well. Penn also won seven straight from March 14 to March 23, which at the time, was tied for the longest win streak in Division I baseball.
 
In the last month, Penn is hitting .308 as a team with 21 home runs, 139 RBIs, and an on-base percentage of .409 while averaging 8.72 runs per game. Pitching has been tremendous, giving up just an average of 4.72 runs per contest, striking out 183 batters with just 55 walks over 160.0 innings.
 
The Yale Series
The Bulldogs have a slight edge over the Quakers in a series that dates all the way back to 1888. Yale leads, 119-103-3.
 
However, it's Penn who has a 6-4 record against Yale in the last 10 games. The Quakers have not dropped a regular-season series to the Bulldogs since 2019, when the Elis claimed three consecutive games at Meiklejohn Stadium April 20-21.
 
Penn can take solace in the fact that the team holds an all-time record of 59-45-1 in Philadelphia against Yale.
 
Player of the Week
Sophomore outfielder Gavin Collins became the first Penn Quaker to be named Ivy League Player of the Week when the conference office announced its awards slate on Tuesday afternoon.
 
Collins hit .667 (6-for-9) with a home run, a double, five runs, and six RBIs in the Quakers' three-game sweep of Cornell over the weekend. He slugged 1.111 with an OBP of .750, totaling an OPS of 1.861.
 
He also extended his reached base streak a team-best 15 consecutive games.
 
Collins is Penn's third award winner of the year after Sebastian Haggard earned Rookie of the Week honors to begin the season and Thomas Shurtleff took home Pitcher of the Week last weekend after strong outings against Lafayette and Princeton.
 
At The Plate
The Quakers boast two of the top hitters in the Ivy League this season in Collins and Jarrett Pokrovsky. Both are hitting well above .300 with Collins at .351 (ranked third in the Ivy) and Pokrovsky at .345 (fifth).
 
Collins has been mashing against Ivy competition this year, posting a league-leading average of .452 (19-42) while Pokrovsky is second at .426 (20-47).
 
Among Ivy hitters overall, Collins ranks second in hits (39) and fourth in on-base percentage (.448). Pokrovsky ranks first in doubles (14) and third in hits (38). Davis Baker ranks second in doubles (13), second in total bases (66), tied for third in home runs (6), and fifth in slugging percentage (.555). Meanwhile, Ryan Taylor is the Ivy League leader in stolen bases with 12.
 
Ernie Echevarria joins Collins and Pokrovsky as the only other .300+ hitter, batting .300 on the dot in his 18 appearances this year. Nick Spaventa (.296), Taylor (.296), and Gavin Degnan (.286) are right behind that trio.
 
On The Mound
Penn pitching has been terrific in this opening stretch of Ivy League play, currently holding the conference's lowest team ERA (3.11) through the first 12 contests.
 
The Quakers also have struck out the most batters (120) and yielded the fewest walks (27).
 
Starters Noah Millikan (0-2, 6.56 ERA), Josh Katz (4-2, 7.34), and Will Tobin (2-1, 5.29) have been hard to stop in Ivy play so far with Tobin going 2-0 with a 2.75 ERA and Katz at 3-0, 3.72.
 
In the bullpen, Penn has enjoyed a tremendous amount of success from Shurtleff (1-2, 0.51)—not allowing an earned run in five Ivy appearances this season—and Marty Coyne (3-1, 5.33), who has allowed just two earned runs over his last 10.1 innings.
 
Scouting The Bulldogs
There hasn't been much more of a surprise this season in Ivy League baseball than Yale, who after being picked fifth in the preseason poll, is fighting for first place this weekend after an 8-4 start.
 
Most of the Bulldogs' success this year has been due in part to their pitching, more specifically freshman Jack Ohman (5-0, 0.19 ERA) who leads Division I baseball in ERA and has a legitimate shot to become an All-America as a rookie after allowing just one earned run in 47.1 innings this year. Ohman has been named Ivy Pitcher of the Week twice and Rookie of the Week four times.
 
The right-hander has struck out 55 batters and walked just 11. He was hit around the most in Ivy play over the weekend against Columbia, giving up five hits, but ended up throwing a complete game shutout against the Lions.
 
Colton Shaw (3-2, 4.50) also had a key performance vs. Columbia over the weekend, tossing eight shutout innings while scattering six hits with five strikeouts and just one walk.
 
Yale's offense is paced by Garrett Larsen, who is hitting .318 (35-for-110) in 30 games this year with six doubles and three triples. Kaiden Dossa is batting .316 and is tied for the team lead in home runs (3) with Jack Dauer. Dauer has a team-high 29 RBIs while scoring 14 times.
 
The Bulldogs have three other .300+ hitters this season including Max Imhoff (.309), Jake Williams (.306), and Alec Atkinson (.304).
 
Follow The Action
All three games this weekend will be streamed live on ESPN+ with Cory Nidoh on the play-by-play call. Live stats will also be available through StatBroadcast.
 
For the latest on Penn baseball, follow @PennBaseball on X (formerly Twitter), @Penn_Baseball on Instagram, and on the web at PennAthletics.com.