Baseball: Penn pushed to wire; can't take title outright

Penn can now party like it's 1997.

With a 13-1 thrashing of Cornell yesterday, the Quakers clinched at least a share of their first Gehrig Division crown in a decade.

"It's huge - it shows that Penn baseball is making a turn for the better," said captain Doug Brown, who pitched the final four innings to get the win. "To know that we have a chance of this Ivy League title, that's huge. And being my senior year, it's a great thing to go out on."

Brown also achieved some personal redemption after the former closer lost his job earlier in the season and was inconsistent in the rotation.

Against Cornell, however, he entered with a precarious one-run lead and successfully sealed the game and the title.

"He pitched absolutely out of his mind. What a performance," coach John Cole said.

The Quakers got strong production up the middle. Centerfielder Joey Boaen was a triple shy of the cycle and drove in four runs.

Jeff Cellucci started both games behind the plate over senior captain Josh Corn, and he delivered. The sophomore smacked a career-high four hits in four at-bats, scoring two runs and driving in four more.

"I got in some good advantage counts, and I got some good pitches," he said.

A win in game two would have guaranteed the Quakers the division title outright.

The second half of the twinbill appeared over in the ninth inning, with Cornell closer Blake Hamilton sporting a comfortable five-run lead. But three full-count walks, a hit-batsman, and three singles later, the game was heading for extra innings.

It wasn't enough. The Quakers allowed an unearned run in the twelfth, putting their fate in the hands of the team they had eliminated hours earlier.

The Big Red need to win one game at Princeton this weekend to hand Penn the division title. If the Tigers sweep all four, they force a one-game playoff with Penn.

Coach Cole, therefore, had mixed feelings about ending ten years of futility.

"It's nice to know we have a chance to win the division . it's a step in the right direction," he said.

But, he added, "we still have unfinished business."

Sunday - Princeton 7, Penn 3; Princeton 10, Penn 6.

Princeton jumped out to an early three-run lead in the second inning of Game 1, but Penn responded in the sixth.

Kyle Armeny's double off of the centerfield wall drove in the two runs, and Alex Nwaka followed with the game-tying single to center to bring Armeny home and tie the game.

But the Quakers were unable to take the lead and the score would stay deadlocked at three to send the game into extras.

After four innings of a tied score, Princeton broke out with Andy Console on the mound to score four runs, two of them earned, in the tenth inning to snatch the win.

The Quakers looked to make a come back in Game 2, and scored six unanswered runs in the first two innings that were riddled with Princeton errors on defense. But Penn's lack of options in the bullpen spelled trouble for the Quakers' defense in the loss.

-Parisa Bastani

Saturday - Penn 11, Princeton 1; Penn 6, Princeton 4.

Andy Console came on for a tiring Jim Birmingham and struck out Adrian Turnham to snuff out a Princeton comeback in Game 2, as Penn swept the day and moved closer to the Lou Gehrig Division title.

In both games, the Quakers' offense had plenty of support for the pitchers, with first-inning home runs in each game.

First, it was Kyle Armeny ripping a three-run shot, his eighth, in the bottom of the first in Game 1.

Penn got single runs in the third and fourth innings of Game 1, and then broke it open with a six-run sixth, capped off by a grand slam by William Gordon for his third homer of the year.

In Game 2, it was Joey Boaen who got the Penn hit parade started, ripping an offering from starter Christian Staehely (0-6) over the right-field wall to give Penn a 2-0 lead.

"I'm starting to feel a little better at the plate, a little more comfortable," Boaen said after going 4-for-6 with four runs scored and three RBIs in the two games.

- Josh Hirsch

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