Cole batting 1.000 with recruited Ps

This early in the season, the mound is no place for freshmen.

Tell that to the trio of young right-handers who stifled Penn's opponents this weekend. Freshmen Jeremy Maas, Paul Cusick and Sam Gilbert combined to pitch 20 innings over three games and gave up zero earned runs - one unearned run on Maas against Yale the only blemish.

Although left unhappy with the team's overall performance, head coach John Cole called the effort by his freshman hurlers "phenomenal," all the more important because of Penn's lack of productivity at the plate.

Each pitcher got it done differently.

Maas, throwing in the weekend's first game, continued to make his case as the staff's second option after sophomore captain Todd Roth. He scattered six hits and five walks over 7.1 innings, striking out six and limiting the Bulldogs to their lone unearned run.

He has now pitched 22 innings on the season, second only to Roth's 33.

Cusick, meanwhile, managed to worm his way out of jam after jam in Saturday's second game to pitch six scoreless innings. In each of the first three innings, he left two or more runners on base by striking out the last two batters. In the second, two K's got him out of a bases-loaded, one-out pickle.

"Most of it was just lack of concentration earlier in the innings, then really having to concentrate and hammer down at the end," he said.

Several of Cusick's 11 strikeout victims went down looking at the freshman's nasty two-strike slider.

"My breaking stuff was working," he said. "It's great to be able to throw your breaking balls for strikes; it really makes a lot of your other pitches a lot better."

Perhaps the most impressive performance came from Gilbert, who had pitched just two innings prior. He came on in relief after Brown had scored three in the first, and he held the Bears for the remainder of his outing - 6.2 innings.

If yesterday was any indication, Gilbert could beef up the Quakers skimpy bullpen moving forward. That is, unless his performance earned him a starting job.

"Sam Gilbert [yesterday], with that hold for seven innings against a very good offensive club, I was very proud of him," Cole said. "Basically, he gave us a chance to win the game."

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