Ryan Taylor is the leader in stolen bases for Penn, which hopes to swipe the Ivy League title

The junior outfielder has rewarded Penn’s faith in his talents by being among the statistical leaders every year. This year? Stolen bases are his specialty.

Penn outfielder Ryan Taylor has been among the team leaders statistically every year since joining the program as a freshman in 2023.Read moreCourtesy / Penn Athletics

by Kerith Gabriel

Published April 30, 2025, 8:00 a.m. ET

It’s about 32 miles from his hometown, but for Ryan Taylor, playing baseball for Penn still feels like a world away.

Taylor, who grew up among the sprawling farmlands of Elmer, N.J., approximately a 40-minute drive from University City, said despite not knowing what to expect from the school and the program, Penn was “the obvious choice.”

The center fielder has rewarded Penn’s faith in his talents by being among the statistical leaders each year. He led the team in walks (25) and steals (nine) his freshman year and followed that with an All-Ivy selection in his sophomore season while leading the team in doubles (15).

Now deep into his junior year, Taylor is at it again, hitting .266 with 34 hits and 19 RBIs. He also leads the team with 15 stolen bases as the Quakers claw for another opportunity to play NCAA postseason baseball.

Not too shabby for a kid from New Jersey farm country.

“In high school, I never wanted to go to a city. I thought I’d hate it,” said Taylor, who was a two-time state champion at St. Augustine Prep in Richland, N.J. “I was a really big outdoor person growing up, like fishing, riding dirt bikes, all types of stuff. Getting here was definitely like a hard adjustment because I had no idea where I was, and I’m just not used to cities.”

Getting acclimated to the team and the university has offered Taylor a new perspective on city life. It’s been an unexpected part of his time with the Quakers. Initially, he thought he’d find himself at a school in the South, the home of many elite baseball programs, and what he called a “destination” for any star ballplayer.

He quickly saw, however, that the Ivies aren’t a slouch, with his freshman season being one of the biggest in the 150-year history of the program. Two seasons ago in a run to the NCAA super regionals, the Quakers knocked off No. 13 Auburn. It was the program’s first win in a regional in more than 30 years.

It also was a breakout season for Taylor as well, as he started 47 games and became the first freshman in 12 years to bat leadoff and record a hit in a season opener for the Quakers.

All against a “destination” program in South Carolina.

“My freshman year when we went down and beat Auburn, beat Stanford [in the postseason],” Taylor said, “we came up short against Southern Miss. I feel like it showed that Penn can compete with anybody. The skill level is not that much different. That mentality hasn’t changed. I feel like when we play as a team together, we go through every weekend knowing we can beat anybody that we play.”

It’s a mentality that’s been instilled in him by an athletic family. His father, George, played baseball at Gloucester County College, which was one of the premier programs in the state.

His older brother, Dillon, was a wrestler at the Naval Academy and served as the inspiration for Taylor to try his hand at wrestling in addition to pursuing baseball. Taylor credits his father and brother with getting him to this point in his athletic career.

“My middle brother, Dillon, always played sports; he was always into something,” Taylor recalled. “I would go to his baseball games when I was little, his wrestling [matches]. I wrestled as a kid because of him. He and my dad pushed me, but Dillon always wanted me to be in the same spot he was in. I can still recall him dragging me outside at a young age just to work out, even though I didn’t want to. ‘No’ just wasn’t an answer.”

That mindset, now his own, has served him well in his time with the Quakers.

“I always say to myself that if you hit a single and you can steal second, well, that’s a double,” Taylor said. “It’s about pushing yourself and not just settling for what you got [initially]. I’m fortunate that I work with coaches who have the same mindset.

“This opportunity and this team, I wouldn’t trade for anything. We have great coaches, some of the best coaches I ever had. And then the team as a whole. Like, just great guys. They make baseball enjoyable.”

The Quakers are 19-16 overall and 12-6 in the Ivy League, but they started slowly with three losses each to then-No. 9 Florida State and No. 21 Troy.

Penn rebounded from the 0-6 start with a pair of big winning streaks. The first was a seven-game streak in March, coupled with a nine-game winning streak entering April that included extra-inning wins against Ivy rivals Princeton and Yale.

The Quakers sit a game out of first place and have clinched a spot in the Ivy League tournament, which starts May 16. Just four games remain on the schedule to finish strong, with a chance to wrestle the Ivy League regular-season title away from coleaders Columbia and Yale.

Stealing bases is something that Taylor knows all about. But stealing away the regular-season title and entering the tournament on a high? That’s the goal.

“Running the bases is probably one of my favorite things to do,” Taylor said. “I’ve always been a quicker guy on the field; I just try to use my strong suits to help the team get into a better place to win.

“We played some really good teams at the beginning of the year. Playing Florida State [to open the season] was by far the best team we played all year. We play those tough opponents not just to test ourselves but to get ready for a long season. I think we’ve put ourselves in a really good position to finish strong here, and that’s what we intend to do.”

And with city life interspersed into all of it?

“Hey, I’m close to home, so I can go home, like literally whenever I want and do the things that I used to enjoy,” Taylor said. “But there’s just so much to do here, both on campus and in the city, I don’t think I’d trade this experience for anything.”