Penn baseball has two players receive Ivy recognition ahead of second weekend of Ivy Play

This past weekend, Penn baseball's senior right-handed pitcher Cole Zaffiro was named the conference’s Ivy League Pitcher of the Week, and freshman outfielder Gavin Collins was named the Ivy League Rookie of the Week. Both of these awards come off the heels of Penn's impressive sweep over Brown. The series saw the Red and Blue come out on top in highly competitive, low-scoring games. Penn baseball’s weekend success can be attributed to the team as a whole in addition to both of these highlighted players. 

Zaffiro was lights-out in his showing Friday versus the Bears. Striking out a career-high 11 batters, the Bears could not buy a hit from the senior pitcher. Zaffiro shutout Brown batters in the seven innings he pitched for, leaving the mound with a 4-0 lead. The Quakers went on to only let one more run-up in this outing, winning Friday’s matchup 4-1. This is the second consecutive week Zaffiro has been awarded this honor, and for good reason too. Last week, Zaffiro’s innings saw zero runs scored, meaning he has pitched for 13 consecutive scoreless innings.

Collins exploded on the scene this past week. Hitting 0.324, Collins bat certainly took a beating. Collins scored four runs during the past week — each one crucial in these close games. Collins did not forget to let his teammates eat too, hitting two RBIs during the week as well. Ivy League play looked anything but daunting for the freshman as he took advantage of every opportunity presented to him against the Bears. 

Going into this next week of conference play against Colombia, the Quakers will look to both Zaffiro’s arm and Collin’s swing to get back to their winning ways.