Power outage hurting Quakers

If, as Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine so eloquently put it over a decade ago, chicks dig the long ball, then the Penn baseball team will be going stag this spring.

The Quakers have struggled in the power department, making runs hard to come by despite several players batting well over .300.

"We're not driving the ball," head coach John Cole said. "It takes three singles to score, where it takes two doubles or one home run. So we need to do a better job in that category."

Tuesday, when the Red and Blue dropped a 16-2 contest to Villanova, they managed just two runs on nine hits. Of those nine, only William Gordon's leadoff double in the fourth went for extra bases.

That lopsided defeat was just the latest in a series of homer-less outings for Penn. The Quakers have failed to go yard in five games - two losses to Dartmouth, two wins against Harvard and the loss to 'Nova - since first baseman Kyle Armeny smacked one against Saint Joseph's on April 2.

On the season, Armeny (5) and Gordon (3) are the only two players to hit more than one home run; Penn has hit 12 as a team, good for fifth in the league, while Yale leads the Ancient Eight with 29.

Cole sees the lack of power as a function of his team's youth - Armeny and centerfielder Mike Gatti are the only seniors in the lineup.

"It's tough for a freshman to come in and be a power hitter," Cole said. "The bulk of our lineup is freshmen. That power will come in time as the bodies develop and mature."

Until then, he may have to watch the league's third-best-hitting team (.302 team average) struggle to put runs on the board. During last weekend's twin-bill sweep at the hands of the Big Green, the Quakers out-hit their opponents in both losses, 8-6 and 10-3.

And while a homer parade may not be around the corner, Cole does see a way to improve the offensive numbers.

"Our team is not a power team," he said. "We're not a big, physical strong team, so we need to get some doubles. We need to get some guys on base for those 3-4-5 guys to hit some more doubles."

Super Soph. Hitting at a blistering clip through Penn's first 24 games, sophomore Steve Gable is getting some notice around the league. The second baseman, who leads the Ivies with a .451 batting average, was named Ivy League Player of the Week Tuesday.

"He's just fantastic," Cole said of the Emmaus, Pa., native. "He works his tail off, he's a great kid in the classroom, he's a great kid on the field. I just can't say enough about Steve; he gets everything he deserves, and he works for it."

Gable is currently in the midst of a 19-game hitting streak.

One of the Quakers' most reliable players, Gable's production also extends to his play in the field. Despite starting every single game at second, he has committed just two errors for a .985 fielding percentage. A "very knowledgeable player," according to Cole, Gable "kind of controls our defense in the middle of the field."

Crunch time. Although the Red and Blue find themselves at 3-4 in league play and third in the Gehrig division, the decisive bulk of their schedule has yet to come.

Each of the next three weekends, the Quakers will play two doubleheaders against their three division foes. That makes 12 more games with serious title implications.

So, with the Quakers sitting 3.5 games out of first, the upcoming stretch bears plenty of importance.

"We've got to win these games," Cole said. "It's all about these next three weekends, so we'll see what we've got."

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