“I don’t plan on stopping now.”
That’s what sophomore outfielder Gavin Collins said as he has taken the lead for Penn baseball (16-12, 10-2 Ivy) with Ivy League Player of the Week honors. When the Quakers blew Cornell out of the water last weekend by an incredible 15 runs, Collins was the key player for this victory with a home run and three RBIs. In this series against the Big Red, he accomplished season highs with three hits, one double, and three putouts.
“It feels good,” Collins said about his achievement. “I played really well this weekend. … The name of the game is to not get out in baseball, and I did a really good job of doing that. … As long as I was getting on base and allowing my teammates to then get in the box and move and then score [is] all you can really ask for, and I felt like I did a good job of doing that this weekend.”
Overall, Collins leads the Quakers offensively with an incredible hitting average of 0.667, tacking on a home run, double, five runs scored, and six RBIs to his season totals. As a sophomore, these records speak to his illustrious career at Penn, and he shows no signs of slowing down.
“As a freshman, [Collins has] just become more mature,” junior infielder Davis Baker said. “Since his freshman year, he’s been fortunate to play a lot, and I think now he’s just making better decisions at the plate and he’s been looking really good lately.”
On and off the field, Collins has developed into a leader despite his underclassman rank. Many of his teammates and coaches have noticed his worthiness for this recognition since the beginning of the season.
“There’s countless great things to say about Gavin,” senior left-handed pitcher Will Tobin said. “He’s a great guy to be around, a great teammate, but on the field, it was evident when he came back from playing summer ball. … He was a really good player last year, but this year, I think he’s come into his own shoes [and] had a great fall and then continued that success into the spring.”
Collins’ success is an indicator of the overall triumph for the team. The Quakers are ranked first amongst the Ancient Eight with an eight-game winning streak, and this streak is the second of the season after Penn completed a similar seven-game winning streak earlier in the year.
“Those streaks of wins, as a leader, [are] definitely validating,” Tobin said. “I kind of can take a step back as a leader and really just enjoy the game, enjoy the time with the guys, and not have to stress about so many little things when the other guys are already doing them.”
“It’s nice,” Baker said humbly. “We’re just like kind of rolling right now. It’s encouraging and [we’re] just kind of hoping to keep that momentum going into our next series against Yale.”
Looking forward to Penn’s series matchup against Ivy conference No. 2 Yale (20-11, 8-4 Ivy) this weekend, the contest will be close among the current Ivy leaders, but the Quakers are not worried.
“We know that Yale’s pitching staff is the best part of their team. On the contrary to that, our hitters are the best part of our team,” Collins said. “Our offense is really good, so we just have to have that confidence that we’re gonna put up a few runs regardless of who we’re facing because that’s who we are as a team. Even when we played Florida State and Troy with some of the top arms in the nation, we still generated a good amount of runs. So the name of the game, really, is how much can we hold them?”
Collins, with the rest of the team, hopes to continue streaking as the Quakers take on the Bulldogs at home for a doubleheader on Saturday, April 19.
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