But like just about everything Sunday at Tommy Lasorda Field at Meiklejohn Stadium, it didn’t come easy.
The Quakers clinched their third consecutive trip to the Ivy League Tournament with a gritty 9-8 win over Columbia in the first game of a doubleheader, snapping a four-game regular-season skid against the Lions that dated back to last year.
Then they turned around and dropped the nightcap, 11-3, in a game that got away from them early — but not before officially punching their ticket to the postseason dance.
Penn (19-16, 12-6 Ivy) and Columbia (21-17, 13-5 Ivy) will both be heading to the Ivy League Tournament with three Ancient Eight games left to play. It’s three-for-three for the Quakers, too, reaching the ILT in each season since its inception, after having also squared off with Columbia in the Ivy League Championship Series in 2022.
The Quakers got there Sunday behind a flurry of multi-hit performances in Game 1:
Jarrett Pokrovsky (2-for-4), Gavin Collins (2-for-3), Nick Spaventa (2-for-3), and Ernie Echevarria (2-for-2) all helped fuel the offense.
Jake Moss (1-0) picked up his first win of the season, tossing 2.1 shutout innings in relief, and Thomas Shurtleff locked down the final six outs — striking out four — to earn his fourth save.
Pokrovsky, meanwhile, kept making history. With two more doubles Sunday, he now sits at 21 for the season — just one shy of tying the program and Ivy League single-season record of 22 set by Tom Grandieri back in 2010.
Game 2, though, was a different story.
Columbia jumped on Will Tobin (2-3) early, tagging him for six runs over three innings.
The Lions never looked back.
Penn’s lineup had a few bright spots — Pokrovsky went 3-for-4, while Owen Degnan ripped a triple and a homer in his first two plate appearances — but the Quakers couldn’t climb back into it.
If the season ended today, Penn and Columbia would face off in the opening round of the four-team Ivy League Tournament bracket. Yale has already clinched a berth. The final spot? Still up for grabs between Dartmouth and Harvard heading into the final weekend.
The Quakers close out their home and non-conference slate Wednesday, hosting Wagner at 3 p.m., before wrapping up Ivy League play with a road series at Brown.
