A costly split for Baseball

On Bob Seddon's last weekend at Murphy Field the Quakers delivered two wins as going away presents on Saturday, but after being swept by Princeton yesterday Penn's Ivy League title hopes appear dim.

Penn topped the Tigers, 3-1 and 5-4, on Saturday but yesterday lost a 6-5 heartbreaker before being walloped, 15-9, in the finale .

"I'm very disappointed," Penn shortstop and captain Evan Sobel said. "We were four games back [in the loss column] going into this weekend, so if we would have taken all four we would have been in first place."

Instead, the Quakers (11-20, 7-9 Ivy) will have to most likely win out and hope that Princeton (13-17, 7-5) loses at least four games to Columbia and Cornell over the next two weekends.

"There's still a chance," Sobel said. "But we really had to take three out of four this weekend and we didn't get it accomplished"

Saturday, it looked as if Seddon's last season could coincide with his sixth Ivy League title. Josh Appell shut down the mighty Tigers lineup in Game 1, pitching a complete game, giving up one run on four hits and striking out nine in the Quakers' 3-1 win.

Freshman third baseman Kyle Armeny was Penn's big hitter in the game, continuing his recent hot streak by going 2-for-3, scoring two runs and connecting on a solo home run in the fifth that put the Quakers up by two.

Between the two games, Seddon was honored for his 37 years of service to the University. The team used the ceremonies as motivation for the second game of the day, which they won, 5-4. The Tigers struck first as center fielder Will Venable hit a two-RBI single and then scored on a delayed steal. But Penn, as has been its habit all season, refused to give in.

It did not take the Quakers long to get back on the right track. Moffie knocked in Armeny in the bottom of the third after the freshman crushed a stand-up triple. In the fifth, Penn scored three runs when Graves ripped a double down the left-field line, scoring Armeny and Moffie. Finally, in the sixth, Matt Horn knocked in Sean Abate with a double to right for Penn's last run.

The pitching was once again excellent for the Quakers. Brian Cirri went seven innings, allowing four earned runs, and Remington Chin and Andy Console were solid in relief, holding the potent Tigers offense scoreless for two innings. Console, a freshman, needed just 15 pitches to strike out the side in the ninth.

But all of Saturday's work was lost yesterday, as the sleeping Tigers came to life and clawed their way back ahead in the standings.

Penn looked like it had the first game won.

With two outs and nobody aboard in the bottom of the final inning of Game 1, Penn had Princeton on the ropes, leading 5-4. But Console walked Princeton's Aaron Prince, allowing the Tiger's dominating middle of the order to have a shot at the win, and they responded. Venable hit a single, then Andrew Salini hit one of his own, scoring both Prince and Venable and sending Penn back to the dugout behind, where they would stay for good after Graves grounded out with two men on in the ninth.

Moffie was 3-for-4 with two RBIs in the game and 6-for-9 with four RBIs and three runs scored in the two games yesterday.

In the second game, Penn just could not get its pitching together, losing 15-9. Penn started Nick Francona, who was not at the top of his game.

"He was sick, and he started the game and you could see from the very beginning we had to get him out of there," Seddon said. "He didn't pitch well, he didn't have it and he shouldn't have pitched. He's a gamer and he wanted to pitch, but we shouldn't have let him pitch."

And the relief pitchers fared no better. Fellow freshman Steven Schwartz allowed four earned runs in four innings of work, and Dan Finkelstein was shelled for four earned runs in two innings.

"The second game they just out-hit us," Sobel said. "It's going to be hard to beat a team who scores 15 runs on you."

And it's going to be hard to come back and win the Ivy League title with four games to make up in the loss column. But this is a team which has lost an unbelievable 11 games by two runs or fewer, so the unpredictable is as likely as anything else.

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