Magic in the tenth

For Jarron Smith, game-winning hits are becoming something of a routine. The freshman outfielder, for the second time this season, connected for a walk-off hit, this time a dramatic home run in the bottom of the 10th inning to give Penn a thrilling 10-8 victory over Dartmouth.

"They put me in good situations and I just do what I'm supposed to do," Smith said.

The win -- Penn's eighth in its last 10 games -- moves the Quakers to 5-1 in the young Ivy League season and completed a two-game sweep of Dartmouth yesterday at Murphy Field.

"It feels so awesome," Penn senior captain Evan Sobel said. "It is unbelievable; we really needed those two wins, but we're 5-1 in the league now. That's something other teams will see and that puts pressure on them."

After winning the first game, 4-3, Penn (8-11, 5-1 Ivy) jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the second game, thanks to good pitching by freshman Nick Francona, who threw five innings and only gave up one earned run -- in the first inning. While Francona was cruising, the Penn bats got a jolt from an unexpected source.

When Sobel stepped to the plate with one on in the second against Dartmouth (3-9, 0-2) pitching stud Jeff Wilkerson, the light-hitting senior wasn't thinking home run.

"I'm kinda doing poorly this season...so I was just trying make contact and be patient," Sobel said. "His speed kind of did the work for me."

The senior crushed his first home run in his four-year Penn career over the left field fence, giving Penn a 2-1 lead.

In the third, after Nate Moffie scored on a Sean Abate double, freshman third baseman Kyle Armeny -- another young, bright spot on this burgeoning Penn squad -- added a two-run homer to give the Quakers a 5-1 lead.

But, in the top of the 5th, Dartmouth struck back, getting four unearned runs after a Bryan Graves error. In the seventh, Dartmouth manufactured two more runs, this time off Remington Chin, to take a 7-5 lead.

But freshman Stephen Schwartz stepped in for Chin and calmed things down. He got Dartmouth second baseman Josh Bailey to ground into an inning-ending double play.

Down 8-6 in the bottom of the eighth, the Red and Blue began to crawl its way back into contention. Abate doubled and Matt Horn singled -- Abate scored on the play and Horn advanced to third on a throwing error. Then, Sobel knocked in his third run of the night from the eighth spot, tying the game.

Dartmouth pitcher Nicholas Peay looked dominant in the bottom of the ninth, striking out Penn's four, five, and six hitters -- Graves, Abate and Armeny.

Schwartz added to a great day by the Penn freshmen, holding Dartmouth to one run, a solo shot, in the final three innings, and giving Penn a shot to win in the bottom of the 10th.

In the 10th, after a Horn strikeout, Sobel continued his day of heroics, reaching on a single to left field, then pinch hitter Ken-Ichi Hino bunted him to second. That left it up to Smith.

Smith -- who had already shown his knack for heroism in the Lafayette game when, as a pinch hitter, he got a walk-off hit in the bottom of the ninth -- once again had a chance to be the hero.

And he didn't let it slip away, connecting for a hard-hit shot over the right-field fence, scoring Sobel and sending the Penn team into pandemonium.

In the first game, Penn won 4-3 off the strength of a great bottom of the first, when the Quakers scored four runs, including a three-run Abate home run.

Penn received great pitching performances when they needed it, as the combination of Bill Kirk, Chin and Andy Console held Dartmouth to three runs. Kirk (2-2) got the win and Console picked up his third save of the season as the freshman closer continues to help the Quakers forget about the injury to senior closer Brian Winings.

Abate and Armeny showed how good the five and six holes can be, as the corner infielders combined to go 7-for-16 with six RBIs in the two games. The Penn pitchers held their own as Console, Schwartz and Francona all had good outings.

For Penn, the wins show how far the team has come from its 0-9 start.

"Now we have the positive momentum," Smith said. "Before we had the negative momentum, cause we were losing a lot of games but now we're on a winning streak, and I just think nobody can stop us."

Penn will need that positive momentum -- and attitude -- in the coming days as they take on a tough Harvard team in a double-header at Murphy Field tomorrow, La Salle on Wednesday and Yale and Brown in double-headers on the road this weekend.

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