Penn Gets Yale In Ivy Baseball Championship Series

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The University of Pennsylvania baseball team is getting ready for the Ivy League Championship Series.

The Quakers (23-20) will take on Yale in a best-of-three set beginning on Tuesday afternoon up in Connecticut. Penn won the Ivy League's Lou Gehrig Division for the first time since 2007, grabbing that title by beating Columbia in a one-game playoff back on May 7th.

"The guys did a really good job hanging in," Penn head coach John Yurkow tells KYW Newsradio. "It's kind of been an up and down year. But I thought we really did a good job (overcoming) some adversity on the road and beating a good Columbia team up there."

Listen to the entire interview with Penn head coach John Yurkow:

Yurkow talks about the big reasons why his team is in this position.

"I think our seniors have done a really good job," he says. "We've pitched well throughout the year and got some timely hitting and some of our bats have kind of heated up a little bit as of late. We're swinging the bats and pushing runs across when we need to. So it's been a pretty good team effort the last few weeks."

Penn will give the ball to senior Jake Cousins for Game #1 of this series. The right-hander is 7-1 with a 2.69 ERA. Senior lefty Adam Bleday (2-3, 3.75 ERA) will start Game #2.

Yurkow scouts Yale (28-16), champions of the Ivy league's Red Rolfe Division.

"They can pitch," he says. "Their top couple arms are pretty good, they've got some velocity. This year, more than ever, they've scored runs in bunches."

Games #1 and #2 in the series will be played on Tuesday afternoon. If a decisive third game is necessary, it will be on Wednesday.
The winner of this series heads to the NCAA Tournament.