Baseball | Perfect 10 only once for Penn

It was a once-in-a-lifetime kind of comeback. And truth be told, it very well could have happened twice in one day.

Down 10-0 going in to the seventh and final inning of its opener against Lehigh yesterday, Penn looked to be done for. The Quakers were being no-hit by Cory Kent and Jordan Warncke, and only one runner had reached base.

But then Tom Grandieri doubled. So did Derek Vigoa. Then came four straight walks. A bunt single here, an error there, and the Red and Blue had batted around.

With Grandieri and Vigoa on base again, Penn trailed 10-8 with two outs. Jeremy Maas stepped to the plate and deposited a Mike Lebo pitch over the right-center field wall, giving the Quakers a narrow one-run lead.

Closer William Gordon shut the door in the bottom of the inning to preserve the 11-10 victory in Bethlehem, Pa.

"It was probably the most amazing comeback I've ever been around," coach John Cole said.

So even when the Mountain Hawks took an 11-1 lead going into the fifth in the doubleheader's nightcap, the pressure wasn't exactly off of them.

The Quakers chipped away at the lead by notching two in the fifth and then put up four more runs in the sixth after James Mraz, Steve Gable and Grandieri walked to start the inning. Vigoa, Gordon and Maas kept the rally going with a single, a walk and another single.

The lead was cut to 11-7 when Matt Tellem - pinch-hitting for Will Davis - came to the plate with the bases loaded and one out.

"The other team, they were shitting their pants, I guess," Gordon said.

But the gods had only written one ridiculous comeback into their plans for yesterday. Right-hander Luke Porter struck out Tellem, got Gable to ground out and pitched a scoreless seventh to seal the 11-7 victory and the split.

For Penn (14-23, 2-14 Ivy), it was another case of hard-nosed play that just couldn't get the job done.

"It was sloppy baseball," Cole said, "but we didn't quit."

The Quakers tallied four errors and struggled even more on the mound, giving up 28 hits on the day.

In his first game back from injury, game one starter Reid Terry was pummeled to the tune of six earned runs in 2.1 innings. Paul Cusick gave up four earned runs in his three innings of relief in the second game against the Mountain Hawks (10-33-1).

"We didn't challenge the batters early," Gordon said. "When we got behind, we gave them fastballs, and they were able to hit them pretty well."

Riddled with inconsistency in all facets of the game, the Quakers remain in an unenviable position - mid-week games like these count for just as much as their Ivy contests - which is to say, they mean nothing for the last-place squad.

The knowledge that they are capable of coming back from a double-digit deficit may take a little bit of the sting away from such an unsatisfactory split.

But Cole and the Quakers are likely in agreement: They'd rather have the two wins than the consolation of a great comeback.

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