On Tuesday, Penn baseball took a seven-game winning streak to Plymouth Meeting, Pa., to take on Villanova in the Liberty Bell Classic. But for the first time in the past eight games, the bell did not toll for a Penn victory.
The Quakers (12-10) had been on fire at the plate in recent games, but they only managed to push three runs across the dish on Tuesday en route to a 9-3 loss to the Wildcats (12-15).
Powered by a 4-for-4 performance with a double and a triple by senior first baseman Matt McKinnon — along with an RBI double from senior catcher Austin Bossart — Penn was able to tally two runs going into the bottom of the sixth. Meanwhile, starter Dan Gautieri had managed to hold Villanova to only one run.
And then the wheels fell off for the Quakers.
Gautieri was pulled after he allowed the first few runners to get on base in the bottom of the sixth inning, and Penn’s relievers were unable to stem the tide. The Wildcats went on to score seven runs in the inning, putting the game away for all intents and purposes. The contest was called due to rain in the eighth inning.
Penn will look to return to its winning ways as the team heads to Ithaca to face Cornell in a four-game series this weekend.
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