PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The University of Pennsylvania baseball team is preparing for the NCAA Tournament. The Quakers are in the Charlottesville Regional and open play against host team Virginia on Friday at noon.
This is the second straight year the Quakers have qualified for the field after winning the Ivy League Tournament. Last season, Penn won its first two games before being eliminated by back-to-back losses to Southern Miss.
If the Quakers are going to have success this time around, head coach John Yurkow said the pitchers must throw strikes.
“When you’re playing really dangerous teams that are that good up and down the lineup offensively, you just really have to limit the freebies,” he said.
“They’re very well-coached,” he said of Virginia. “They’re hitting .340 as a team, so offensively, they pose a lot of challenges. They’ve got power, they can run, their walk-to-strikeout ratio is really good. So we’re gonna have our hands full.”
Senior right-hander Cole Zaffiro will get the start on the mound against Virginia. He is 5-4 this season with a 4.98 ERA.
Penn is 24-23 for the season heading into Friday’s game. Virginia is 41-15. The other two teams in the Charlottesville regional are Mississippi State and St. John’s.