Penn baseball (16-8, 4-2 Ivy) had a strong showing over the weekend against Dartmouth (10-11, 3-3), winning the three-game series 2-1.
“It felt good to start the series off with a win,” junior first baseman Ben Miller said. “That’s always the goal. The bats, just in general, were pretty hot for us, which I would say led to the big win.”
In the Saturday doubleheader, the Quakers first knocked out the Big Green 9-4, while dropping the second game 2-1. Then, in a thriller on Sunday, the Quakers prevailed 10-9 to snatch the series win.
Miller proved to be one of the stars through the weekend who were crucial to battling the Big Green. The Durham, N.C. native scored two runs in the first contest, including one home run, batting 2-for-4 from the plate. During the third game — another Penn win — he set an almost identical performance, notching two hits on four at-bats, featuring one home run. This time though, it was a grand slam at a critical point in the game, swinging it in favor of the Quakers 7-5 after having been down two runs.
“The grand slam was really exciting. I guess it was the first one I’ve ever hit in my life. It was a big moment, and honestly it’s just thanks to the guys in front of me for getting on base,” Miller said. “I’m glad we could pull that one out. It was huge to win the series…they were a tough team.”
The Quakers did lose the second game of the series after being quiet on the offense, scoring just one run courtesy of a home run in the fourth inning by senior shortstop Craig Larsen. During the first three innings, the Quakers left runners on base during each go-around, and those early troubles were a large part of what costed Penn in the latter part of the doubleheader.
“Their starting pitcher did a really good job just keeping the ball low in the zone … Honestly, it just [was tough] offensively not being able to get the win for our pitchers when they did such a good job holding Dartmouth’s offense down,” Miller said.
Coming up, the Quakers will face Delaware State on Tuesday, and then play a series against Harvard next weekend in Cambridge. Harvard is the number one team in the Ivy League, with Penn trailing just behind.
“We don’t focus too much on our opponents. We know what we are capable of offensively, so it’s really just a matter of going up there and executing,” Miller said. “It should be a good weekend.”
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