Sports Update: Baseball's aces trump Tigers

A year ago, this team may not have won these two games. But this season's baseball team is different.

Andy Console came on for a tiring Jim Birmingham and struck out Adrian Turnham to snuff out a Princeton comeback, and Penn moved ever closer to its first Lou Gehrig Division title since 1997, sweeping the Tigers 11-1 and 6-4 Saturday afternoon.

Coupled with a Columbia sweep over Cornell, the Quakers (19-14, 11-5 Ivy League) move three games ahead of the field in the division, which they can clinch Sunday. Any combination of three Penn wins and Big Red losses will do the trick.

"It was a big day for us to keep going," senior outfielder Joey Boaen said of the wins, the Quakers' fifth and sixth in a row.

Penn coach John Cole went to his two ace freshmen to pressure Princeton (10-21, 6-8), and Todd Roth and Birmingham obliged, throwing 15 and 2/3 of the 16 innings on the day.

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, giving Roth all the run support that he would need.

He allowed seven hits and only struck out two, both well below what he has done throughout the Ivy League season, but did not walk anyone and kept the hits scattered enough to only allow one run.

"I thought Todd got some balls up, but I'll tell you what, he competes," Cole said.

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.

That homer, along with two earlier runs, made six Quakers runs scored with two outs.

"It was nice to get a few two-out hits," Cole said.

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.

After Princeton scored a run in the fifth on back-to-back doubles to start the inning, the Tigers squandered their best chance to tie the game.

Instead of bunting the runner over, David Hale struck out swinging without ever attempting the sacrifice, and Derek Beckman's subsequent flyout to right did not get a run in. Birmingham then got a groundout from Dan DeGeorge and was out of trouble.

The Quakers then added two runs each in the sixth and seventh, as Alex Nwaka hit his second homer of the year to lead off the sixth.

In the ninth, Birmingham tired trying to finish off the job. With two outs and a runner on second, he walked Micah Kaplan on a 3-2 pitch.

Then Hale, who had struck out his first three times up, homered to right-center, and made the game a little interesting before Console finished the job for his third save.

"That's why you get extra runs," Cole said.

"I think I was trying to overthrow," Birmingham said of the home run in the ninth.

But his outing was solid, nonetheless: four earned runs on seven hits with six strikeouts and three walks in 8 and 2/3 innings.

Catching the two rookies was Jeff Cellucci, who normally backs up Josh Corn. But Cole wanted to give his senior catcher a rest, using him instead as the designated hitter, and Cellucci rewarded his confidence with a 4-for-7 day with three RBIs.

Cole said that he thinks he will use seniors Doug Brown and Joe Thornton on the mound Sunday, as Penn tries to move closer to that elusive division title.

But his players know that there is still a lot of baseball to be played.

"We still can't relax, but the mood's going to better on the team tomorrow," Birmingham said.

It'll be even better with two more wins.

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