Baseball clinches Gehrig title

It took a juggled rotation, a few gifts from Columbia and a little luck, but the Penn baseball team found a way to clinch the Gehrig Division championship just the way it wanted to -- at home -- with a doubleheader sweep over the Lions Saturday. Columbia right fielder Mike Shibilo misplayed two fly balls into doubles and reliever Frank Telesca walked in the game-winning run as the Quakers rallied for three runs in the bottom of the seventh to steal the opener, 4-3. In the nightcap, Penn's floundering offense managed to turn two Lions' errors into three unearned runs. And that was all staff ace Ed Haughey needed. The Ivy League strikeout king tossed a four-hit shutout to give the Quakers a 3-0 victory and the division crown. Penn's doubleheader against the Lions scheduled for Sunday in New York was rained out and canceled. Next weekend the Quakers are in New Haven, Conn., for a best-of-three series against Rolfe Division-winner Yale for the Ivy League championship. "To be honest, we didn't play great ball Saturday," said righthander Dan Galles, who battled through four Penn errors and a shaky first inning to win the first game. "They make a couple of mistakes that helped us out a lot, and we were able to take advantage of them." As usual, it also came down to the right arms of Galles and Haughey, and with a division title on the line, the Quakers (21-18, 13-5 Ivy League) weren't pulling any punches. Penn coach Bob Seddon juggled Penn's normal rotation to make sure his best one-two punch would take the mound in front the Quakers faithful at Bower Field. "That was the plan all along," Seddon said. "We won the division, and we won it with our pitching. That's the way we've done it all year." Haughey (8-1) was his consistently brilliant self, allowing a notoriously potent Lions offense to put only four runners in scoring position all afternoon. The only real threat he faced was in the seventh, when Columbia (15-23-1, 9-9) loaded the bases with nobody out on a leadoff double, a base on balls and a laced single to center. But Haughey induced Jamie Lake to fly out to shallow center, and escaped the inning unscathed when shortstop Mark DeRosa made a fine play to his left to begin an inning-ending double play. Lions starter Chris Vogel was nearly as good as Haughey through the first five innings. The freshman yielded only a lone single to Derek Nemeth before the wheels came off in the sixth. With one out, Armen Simonian walked and advanced to third on Mike Shannon's solid single to right. A throwing error on a pickoff play allowed Simonian to trot home for the eventual winning run. After an error and another free pass loaded the bases, Vogel walked Nemeth to plate an insurance run. "When you're on the road and it gets in the late innings, there's a lot of pressure," Seddon said. "That's the difference. They just cracked." At least Vogel beat himself. In the seventh inning of the opener, Columbia's 6-foot-7 righthander Steve Ceterko could only watch helplessly as his teammate, Shibilo, stumbled around right field and almost singlehandedly erased a 3-1 lead. When Allen Fischer popped up to right to lead off the inning, Shibilo set up camp about 10 feet beyond where the ball actually landed. Fischer ended up at second base. Nemeth then greeted Shibilo with what should have been a routine fly ball down the right field line, but with Shibilo's help became another double. A frustrated Ceterko then botched a pick-off throw and threw two balls to pinch-hitter Jeremy Milken to bring Telesca loping in out of the bullpen. The reliever gave Milken a free pass and then gave up consecutive singles to Tim Henwood and Simonian. After Mike Shannon struck out, Michael Green walked on five pitches to force in the winning run.

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