Baseball salvages lost weekend

Midway through yesterday afternoon at Meiklejohn Stadium, the Penn baseball team was staring a completely fruitless weekend dead in the face.

Having lost and tied in their two Saturday games against Yale - the nightcap was suspended due to darkness in extra innings - the Quakers had started off the Sunday twinbill with yet another loss to Brown.

Then in game two, the Bears scored three first-inning runs off of senior starter John D'Agostini, and they seemed to be in cruise control as they carried that lead into the fifth. They had not not committed a single error all day. The Penn offense had scored just one run in 11 innings against Brown pitching.

And then a funny thing happened. Brown's defense, which had been stellar to that point, finally made a mistake. The Quakers pounced, exploding for five runs in the inning, and never looked back on their way to a 6-4 weekend-salvaging win.

After a leadoff walk by freshman shortstop Dan Williams, Bears third baseman Robert Papenhause committed the crucial error. Junior Jeff Cellucci's sharp grounder to third might have yielded a double play, but instead ended up in right field after Papenhause threw the ball away.

With runners on the corners and no outs, Penn's offense emerged from its slumber. In an inning that included its share of free bases on walks and wild pitches, RBI singles by Michael Gatti, Steve Gable and William Gordon did the damage for the Quakers.

"We knew we had to come back and score some runs," Gatti said. "Earlier in the game, we're not hitting well, so we're just coming back and banging some balls."

However, Penn may never have been in position to regain the lead had freshman pitcher Sam Gilbert (1-0) not come in early to stop the bleeding. The right-hander, who had pitched just two innings previously, relieved D'Agostini with two down in the first and went on to pitch 6.2 innings of scoreless relief. The five-hit, two-walk effort earned him his first collegiate win.

Still, despite the victory to close things out, head coach John Cole was not happy with his team's performance over the weekend. Apart from a five-run inning and a six-run inning, the Quakers (7-9, 1-2 Ivy) scored just six times. They plated just one apiece in each of the losses and failed to hit a single longball.

"You've got to come out with more than one [win], that's for sure," Cole said. "I'm not pleased at all. The games are close, we're just not getting any offensive firepower, and that's what's leaving us on the short end."

Yale 5, Penn 1 (9 inn.)

Freshman pitcher Jeremy Maas (1-1) gave the Red and Blue a quality start, going 7.1 innings and surrendering just one run, unearned. The right-hander was denied his first Ivy win, however, as the Penn bullpen struggled yet again and could not hold the Bulldogs in extra innings.

The Quakers had come back to tie the game at one in the fifth on an RBI double up the left-field line by Gordon. Gable, who had led off the inning with a walk, narrowly beat the throw from left-fielder Stefan Schropp to score from first.

But reliever Reid Terry gave up four runs in the ninth for the loss.

Yale 9, Penn 9 (susp./11 inn.)

The Quakers survived two monster home runs from Yale's Ryan Lavarnaway and put together two game-tying rallies to stay alive.

Down 7-1, a six-run inning for Penn that included six hits (all singles) sent the game to extras.

Unless it holds title implications at the end of the season, this game will remain a tie on the schedule.

Brown 2, Penn 1

Staff ace Todd Roth (3-1) gave up runs in each of the first two innings before settling down to retire nine straight and go the distance. Without the run support, though, he suffered his first loss of the season.

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