Men’s baseball (7-21, 4-8 Ivy) dropped three straight home matchups against Penn (20-11, 9-3 Ivy) this past weekend after sweeping Cornell on the road last week. They lost by scores of 6-4 Friday, 13-6 Saturday morning and 4-1 Saturday afternoon, allowing Penn to move into sole possession of first place in the Ivy League standings.
“Coming in this weekend, we knew it was gonna be a challenge,” Head Coach Grant Achilles said regarding Penn’s performance. “They took advantage of some miscues on our part.”
The Bears fell behind early in all three games against the Quakers, surrendering a combined seven runs across the first inning of each game.
Making his third appearance of the season in the Friday afternoon opener, Paxton Meyers ’24 was the only Bears starter to make it out of the second inning. Santhosh Gottam ’25, coming off a career-high seven-inning, eight-strikeout performance last weekend, was tagged for six runs in 1 1/3 innings Saturday morning. Carter Rasmussen ’26, making his first career start on Saturday afternoon, gave up two runs on one hit, three walks and a hit-by-pitch while recording just one out.
Free passes were a problem for Brown pitchers all weekend, with the staff issuing 21 walks and hitting four batters across the weekend.
“We want action in the first three pitches,” Achilles said. “It’s just been kind of a struggle at points this year, and trying to get more consistency there is gonna make a lot of difference for our pitching staff.”
The Bears received good outings from their bullpen throughout the series. Rookie Christian Keel ’26 tossed three scoreless innings Friday, while Dylan Reid ’26 and Bobby Olsen ’23 each set career highs with 11 strikeouts in 6 2/3 innings during Saturday’s doubleheader. Olsen, who held the Quakers to two runs, had previously started three of the Bears’ seven wins of the season, and said he approached the relief appearance “like every other start.”
“I’m not looking too far ahead,” Olsen said. “Just staying present.”
While their pitching faltered early in games, the Bears’ offense came alive late to make comeback attempts. Trailing 6-0 in the seventh inning Friday, the Bears scored three runs off a two-run single by catcher Jacob Burley ’23 and a catcher’s interference call while Nathan Brasher ’25 was batting. With two outs in the ninth inning, the Bears mounted a rally as Charles Crawford ’24 and Ryan Marra ’23 both got hits and Mark Henshon ’26 — reigning Ivy League Rookie of the Week — knocked an RBI single to bring the winning run to the plate. But the Bears fell short 6-4.
On Saturday morning, the Bears found themselves in an 11-0 hole, but put together a six-run eighth inning with RBIs from Conor Cooke ’25, Reece Rappoli ’24, Gunner Boree ’25 and Derian Morphew ’23, eventually losing 13-6. The game also saw Burley extend his on-base streak to 22 games before failing to reach in the series finale.
Over the first two games of the series, Bruno’s bats recorded 22 hits but left 25 runners on base. “We are a competitive offensive team,” said Centerfielder Morphew. “We’ve outhit a lot of teams. I think the only thing we’re missing is a completely defensive game.”
In the third game, the Bears ran into the buzzsaw right arm of Penn sophomore Ryan Dromboski. With a 2.44 ERA this season, Dromboski stifled the Bears’ lineup, hurling a complete game while striking out 12 and allowing one run.
Dromboski had a “competitive fastball of course (and) a pretty good changeup, but I think the slider is what hurt a lot of guys today,” Morphew said.
Through the first eight innings, Dromboski allowed just one hit — a first-inning single through the infield from Mika Petersen ’26 — before faltering in the ninth as he eclipsed 110 pitches, giving up an RBI single to Morphew.
The Bears will look to bounce back when they face Harvard in a three-game set at home this weekend, starting at 11:30 a.m. Saturday. The games will be televised on ESPN+.
“We attacked this week (like) we attacked last week having come off the sweep,” Olsen said. “Keeping that consistency is what makes us good … just put our noses down and get ready for Harvard.”
“It’s a big series for us, an important series,” Morphew said. “We’re gonna take care of business."
Linus is a sports editor from New York City. He is a junior concentrating in English, and when he's out of The Herald office you can find him rooting for the Mets, watching Star Wars or listening to The Beach Boys.
