May Day: RF leads Baseball to 17-8 victory

The Penn baseball team accomplished pretty much everything it set out to do against Lafayette yesterday afternoon. First and foremost, the Quakers (11-3) wanted to avenge last year's tough, 10-9 road loss to the Leopards (4-11). The Quakers got their vengeance in a big way, drubbing the Leopards, 17-8, behind the bat of right fielder Chris May. May's line looked more like he'd just finished a doubleheader instead of a single game. The senior went 4-for-5 on the day, slamming two doubles and a triple before launching a grand slam in the bottom of the seventh that blew the game wide open. May also scored four runs and chalked up a career-high nine RBIs. May's offensive success seemed to rub off on his defensive play. In the seventh -- just before his grand slam -- May gunned down Lafayette first baseman Matt Tambellini at second, robbing him of what looked like a sure double. "May's the player of the game," Penn coach Bob Seddon said. "Two grand slams in a week, he's really swinging the bat well." That's right, May's grand slam was not only his fourth home run on the year, but his second bases-loaded four-bagger since Saturday, when he hit one against West Chester. "I felt really good yesterday at practice, working on being patient and looking for [my] pitch," May said. May felt as though teams were pitching around him a little bit last weekend -- citing the five walks he drew in four games -- but was definitely seeing his pitches yesterday. "I saw some pitches I could drive," May continued. "The inside fastball, I haven't been seeing very many of those this season. Days like this are few and far between." While May directly accounted for 12 of Penn's 17 runs, nine other Quakers got into the scoring act, either by touching home plate or driving in runs. Designated hitter Jeff Gregorio and shortstop Steve Glass produced four runs each. Gregorio scored three and drove in one, while Glass scored two and drove in two. The Quakers fifth-straight win bodes well for their season, as neither Lafayette or Penn has changed its makeup since that one-run loss last year. "These are basically the same two teams that played last year," May said. "So it's very good that we followed through and played this well." In addition to getting the win, the Quakers coaches also wanted to prepare for this weekend's opening of the Ivy League season against Dartmouth and Harvard. To that end, the coaches looked at three different pitchers, with each hurler working three innings. Junior Mark Lacerenza started the game, marking his return from injury (sprained tendons in the fingers on his pitching hand). Lacerenza, gave up four hits and two earned runs in his three innings, striking out one. "I just tried to get back into the rhythm, and let my defense make the plays," Lacerenza said. "I'd say I'm about 70-80 percent. It's tough to throw my breaking balls and offspeed pitches because I don't have much feel on the ball, so I'm mainly limited to fastballs." Freshman Matt Winn pitched the next three innings, picking up his first victory despite allowing four runs. Dan Fitzgerald closed out the final third of the game, striking out two while picking up his first save on the year. "It was great that guys that hadn't pitched a lot were able to get work today," Seddon said. "We were trying to figure out pitchers for the weekend."

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