The secret to Penn baseball’s pitching success?

The man behind the plate

Learning the ins and outs of every pitcher is a tall task, but Penn catching is up to the challenge

GRIFFIN BOND

Sports Associate

Penn baseball’s starting catcher Jackson Appel is arguably one of the top catchers in the Ivy League. He was named second team All Ivy last season and has been on fire this season with a .871 OPS and a .325 batting average.

However, while he has lit up the stat sheet, one of his biggest impacts on the team doesn’t show up in the box score. His ability to foster a strong dynamic with Penn’s pitchers has helped the team maintain a 4.29 ERA — by far the lowest in the Ivy League with Columbia coming in at second with 6.11.

For sophomore right-handed pitcher Ryan Dromboski, who is in his first season as a starting pitcher for the Quakers, having a strong relationship with Appel has allowed him to flourish with a 3.74 ERA this season. He highlighted the importance of having a catcher who knows his habits and what pitches he likes to throw in different counts. For the hardthrowing righty, his go-to punch-out pitch is his slider — which has helped him reach 31 strikeouts this season, fifth most in the conference.

“When I get to a two strike count, [Appel] knows to mostly set up outside and be like ‘Yep here comes a slider, I’m ready to go for it.’” Dromboski said.

According to pitching coach Josh Schwartz, catchers need to know the trends of every pitcher on the staff — including what each of their pitches looks like and how to set up behind the plate to make them as effective as possible. He added that catchers need to adjust to pitchers. Dromboski, for example, incorporates pitches that tend to have a lot of movement in which Appel is skilled to expect.

Eileen Wang of women’s tennis promotes a teamfirst mentality

Wang boasts winning records in both singles and doubles this spring

ANIKA GURURAJ

Sports Associate

Sophomore Eileen Wang has wasted no time finding her role in Penn women’s tennis’ roster, quickly cementing herself as an integral part of the team’s arsenal.

This spring season, Wang has consistently held winning records in both singles and doubles — in which she is often paired with sophomore Sabine Rutlauka. Most recently, the pair picked up their fourth doubles win of the season against the Fairleigh Dickinson Knights. Growing up in Buffalo, N.Y., she often spent time in the local tennis center watching her brother play. One day, she decided to join in on the action, and that was the beginning of her journey with the sport. Her family, particularly her father, was a driving force behind her success on court.

“When [my dad] was in college, he taught himself how to play and then taught [my sibling and I] to play

Senior catcher Jackson Appel warms up with senior left-handed pitcher Owen Coady before their

“I think if you asked Appel what he would want Dromboski to do, he would say throw every ball down the middle and let them move,” Schwartz said.

Schwartz added that in addition to telling Dromboski to aim for the middle, Appel might consider setting more towards center to help Dromboski be more effective.

At points in the game when things aren’t tipping in Penn’s favor and the pitcher is struggling, Appel is often tasked with going out to the mound to help settle him down. Appel said that over time, he has developed different approaches on how to handle different pitchers.

“Some guys you want to tell them to lock it in and be a little harder with them,” Appel said. “But then some guys just need a little break, so I’ll just talk about anything, whatever’s on my mind even if it is not baseball-related at all. Sometimes that actually helps people.”

Appel has a whole checklist of information he needs to know to help pitchers be at their best. It might be easy to memorize it all for one pitcher like Dromboski, but on a staff that already has when we grew up,” she said. “He’s been my coach since I was four, up till now. I still play with him when I go back home. He keeps up with all my matches and texts me about it.”

Wang’s school life was untraditional to say the least. While most students spent their weekends hanging out with friends or catching up on schoolwork, she was traveling across the country, competing on the junior United States Tennis Association (USTA) tour. Inadvertently, she found a community among her competitors on the tour.

“I would leave Thursday or Friday and spend the entire weekend at a tournament,” Wang said. “We would always see the same group of girls at the tournaments, and got to know them pretty well. It was nice to see them when traveling and I am still in touch with them, especially the girls who play for other schools we compete against.”

Playing on a national level, Wang’s talent did not go unnoticed by college teams. Coach Sanela Kunovac singled her out as a talent that possessed both offensive and defensive skills, describing Wang as agile and explosive on court. Kunovac was particularly impressed with Wang’s ability to seamlessly switch between offense and defense.

While the intensity of training and play took a step up at Penn, Wang thinks the biggest change was more encompassing than the rigor of the game.

“The biggest change coming from junior to collegiate tennis is shifting from an individualistic to a group mindset. Here, your team’s success also depends on you,” said Wang. “That might put more pressure on you, but they’re also there to support you and it’s nice to know they’re always there for me.”

Eventually, the pressure of being on a team shifted into the comfort of having a backbone of support during each seven pitchers who’ve thrown double-digit innings through 19 games, learning all the intricacies of each pitcher is not an easy task.

“The catcher has to know the pitcher inside and out,” said Schwartz. “He has to know what his tendencies are, know where his failures are, know how to rile him up or calm him down or say the right thing. He has to know what’s sharp or weak for that day, and what the past history of his pitches has been.”

Appel added that it takes a lot of practice to build a strong rapport with the pitchers. He catches them often throughout the offseason to learn their mechanics better and build chemistry.

“I’ve caught all of them so many times at this point,” Appel said. “We do a lot of work with them. Just through repetition you end up knowing what’s good for each guy.”

Despite all the important information that goes into a successful pitcher and catcher relationship, some might argue that the most important factor is trust. Dromboski said that he knows a critical part of earning a catcher’s trust is not crossing them up. When a catcher expects a curveball, match. Wang noted that the stress that comes with adjusting to a new team was as high as ever in her freshman fall. Yet, once spring season rolled around, she grew more comfortable with the Red and Blue.

“I began to understand that they would support me when I was having a tough day, and no one on the team would blame each other for a loss,” she said.

Coach Kunovac has noticed this development in Wang as well, praising her for taking on a leadership role despite still being a sophomore. Her goals are those of a for example, and ends up getting a fastball that’s 10-20 miles per hour faster and with a lot less movement, it can be dangerous.

At the college level in particular, blocking is an essential component of a strong pitcher-catcher relationship. The college strike zone tends to be wider and pitchers understandably have less command over their pitches than at the major league level, so having a catcher that can prevent past balls is more important than framing pitches and stealing strikes.

Schwartz explained that if there was a runner on third and the best pitch in the given situation was a low breaking ball, the pitcher needed to be confident that the catcher could block the ball and prevent the runner on third from scoring. The pitcher also has to trust that their catcher’s arm is strong enough to throw out runners trying to advance.

The list of demands on Appel and the rest of Penn’s catchers is lengthy, but if they can do all that, Schwartz has one last request.

“If a catcher can hit and run well,” he said, “and really get it done on that side of the ball like Jackson Appel can, then I’m a happy camper.” leader, aiming to make amends after the heartbreaking end to last year’s Ivy League Championship run.

“The biggest goal I have this season is kind of a team goal. We have our Ivy season coming up and last year we came short of winning the whole championship by just one match,” said Wang. “This year, we really are gunning for it. Hopefully by the end of the season we have a ring.”

You can catch Wang in action next against Princeton on Saturday, as the team embarks on its 2023 Ivy League Championship campaign.

Women’s lacrosse victorious in gritty 11-10 win over Georgetown

An explosive second period ultimately gave way to a Quaker victory

ALEXIS GARCIA

Sports Editor

In a game that could serve as MerriamWebster’s definition of “back-and-forth”, Sunday’s matchup between Penn women’s lacrosse and Georgetown resulted in a 11-10 gritty win in favor of the Quakers.

The Red and Blue (5-3, 2-0 Ivy) were looking to bounce back from a tough loss they suffered to No. 10 Maryland earlier in the week, which coach Karin Corbett blamed on a poor draw game. This factor proved to be the key to Penn’s success, as the team tallied 16 draws to Georgetown’s (5-6) nine in Sunday’s victory.

Based on shooting numbers alone, it may seem like Penn should have won in blowout fashion. However, it wasn’t until the second half that the Red and Blue were able to get a hold of, and maintain, the lead.

“We tried to string more goals together, back-to-back, and go on a run,” Corbett said. “We produced a lot more opportunities than we capitalized on, but I still think we worked our motions pretty well.”

Despite eight shots in the first quarter, the Quakers only had one goal in the frame: senior attacker Niki Miles’ 20th of the season that cut through a pair of Hoya defenders. No matter the clear attempts or fantastic passing happening on the other side of the field, as soon as the Quakers entered the Hoyas’ defensive zone, their momentum was halted. The Georgetown team tallied six saves to Penn’s one by the end of the first period.

Both teams lit up the scoreboard in the second period, though.

Senior midfielder Caitlin Cook was quick to put one in the back of the net and bring the Red and Blue within one. From then on, scoring celebrations seemed to trade off between the two teams. Penn scored one, Georgetown scored one. Penn scored two, Georgetown scored two.

The score would even three times in the second before the Quakers proved to be the victors of the catch-up game. Fresh off of scoring her first goal of the season eight minutes prior, sophomore midfielder Paige Lipman’s buzzer beater put Penn up 7-6 heading into the half. The two teams combined for nine goals in the second, evident that the scoring troubles Penn experienced in the first period had subsided. But Georgetown seemed to find the back of the net equally as much.

“We came out a little slow,” Lipman said. “I think we were relying on some of our big players to score for us, but once we started to all play together, that is when things started clicking.”

The second half reflected much of the first, but in quieter fashion. Back-to-back goals by junior attacker Julia Chai and junior midfielder Maria Themelis stretched Penn’s lead to three, but the Hoyas would not leave the frame with nothing to show for themselves. A pair of Georgetown goals brought the team back within one.

After struggling to take the lead from the

FENCING, from BACK PAGE

Lu, who finished 15th at last year’s championships, put together an impressive campaign this season with a career high 51 regular season wins. She was also named first team All-Ivy in February after placing second at the Ivy League Championships.

Hoyas the entire first half, the Quakers never found themselves playing from behind again. Despite another tough back-and-forth battle in the fourth quarter, Penn held its narrow margin until the final buzzer.

“No matter what defense they were putting in, relying on each other and working as a full seven kept the team going,” Lipman said. “We stuck to the game plan and took every play as it came — not focusing on the score.”

It took a team effort, but the team’s victory against Georgetown is a testament to Penn women’s lacrosse’s perseverance. The one-goal win may have taken 11 more shots, it may have taken 10 more ground balls. In the end, though, Penn won the statistical category that matters most.

The momentum from Sunday’s win will be as important as ever the next time the Quakers are out, as they take on No. 5 Florida on the road next weekend.

Cho, who was also named to the first team AllIvy, had an equally impressive 47-13 record in the regular season. Cho was competitive on the strip against some of the top competitors. She defeated the eventual national champion, Harvard’s Lauren Scruggs.

With all of this year’s All-Americans returning, coach Andy Ma and the rest of the Quaker team should be feeling good as they begin to prepare for next season.

Sprint Football

Calling all former high school football players and athletes! The Penn Sprint football program is looking for athletes interested in the opportunity to play a varsity sport at the collegiate level. Penn Sprint Football is a full contact, 11 vs 11 football program that follows all the same rules used by the NCAA. The weight limit is 178 lbs, but players range between 150-190lbs between weigh ins during the season. Becoming a member of the Sprint Football program will allow you to become a member of a close knit team and develop great memories during your time here at Penn. If interested, please contact Head Coach Jerry McConnell at gerardm@upenn.edu or call (856)296-0381.