No Ivy, no problem for Baseball

As long as it faces a non-conference opponent, the Penn baseball team can hold its own.

But so far this season, the Quakers (10-16, 0-8 Ivy) have been the pinatas of the Ivy League: Everyone gets a free hit. They've stumbled to a nasty nine-game losing streak since conference play began and are hoping to regain their confidence today against Lafayette (13-15) in Easton, Pa.

"We're in a bad slump right now; we keep getting worse," sophomore designated hitter Jeremy Maas said. "We've got to step out of it. We've played some better teams down in Florida. Maybe [it's] just the pressure of being called 'Ivy League.'"

Their eight Ivy losses have come against teams that arguably have less talent than some squads the Quakers have beaten, like Rollins and Villanova.

So Coach John Cole, records aside, wants a win simply to raise his team's spirits.

"We need to get our confidence back; our confidence has been shaken," he said. "We need to believe we can win again, and that's what we're looking for tomorrow."

Whatever the cause of the team's struggles in the Ancient Eight, one thing that must improve is its pitching. The staff allowed a season-high 18 runs against Brown last weekend and has managed a feeble earned run average of 7.13 on the season.

Even Paul Cusick, the pitching staff's best starter by the numbers, sports an unsavory 5.26 ERA.

Freshman right-handed pitcher Vince Voiro will get the start today because Penn's regular starters - Cusick, Robbie Seymour, Todd Roth and Reid Terry - are worn out from the busy weekend, which saw four away games, two each against Yale and Brown.

"We're hoping [Voiro] can stretch it out a little bit and get a good start in," Cole said.

This will be Voiro's second start of the season.

Perhaps the spark that Penn needs could come from its offense, which blazed through teams earlier in the season but has been quiet of late.

"We're not winning still. Everything can't be going right with the offense," Maas said. "The offense has got to pick it up and win the game. We're getting people on. We're just not getting key hits."

If they can revive their bats, maybe the wins will follow.

The Red and Blue will try to bring this Ivy curse with them to Lafayette and leave it in Easton with the Leopards.

Hopefully for the Quakers, they can act out a role reversal in today's game against a non-Ivy opponent, and the Ancient Eight's recent pinata will taste some sweet success of its own.

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