A FRONT ROW VIEW: This was one to toss away

Walk through the parking lot separating Franklin Field and the Palestra, over the winding bridge with chipping light blue paint and you'll find Bower Field. There, the Philly skyline acts as a backdrop, Amtrak trains go back and forth just beyond the left field fence and trains carrying raw materials cast a shadow that sometimes darkens home plate. It's cold too, so bring a winter jacket -- it may be 60 degrees on College Green, but there it'll be a balmy 20. The wind is always gusting at Bower Field. Baseball America calls it "a pitcher's paradise even by major league standards." It is 330 feet to left, 340 down the right field line and 410 straight away. Bower Field is the home of Penn baseball -- a good team this year and a serious contender for the Ivy League crown. If the Quakers do win the title, they'll face the winner of the Northeast Conference for a berth in the NCAA tournament. Yesterday Penn hosted Rider, one of the NEC's top contenders. The game was nothing to write a postcard back to the High Rises about -- not that it will get there anyway. This was a sloppy game. Too many errors for teams with such high aspirations. Penn had shredded the cover off the ball entering the game, averaging nine runs during its first 10 contests. But yesterday afternoon the hits weren't coming. The Quakers managed just five. It was a game Penn shouldn't have won. The problem was it wasn't a game Rider should have won either. On successive plays, Bronc fielders dropped pop flys. It staked Penn to a 4-2 lead, which the Quakers were unable to hold. When it was over, the players admitted they just weren't mentally into the game. Midweek games are tough, midterms tougher, explained Allen Fischer as he raked the first base area of Bower Field where he had committed one of the costly miscues. It just as well should have been the Quakers who won this game, though. That's because when you're on a roll, you win games you shouldn't. And the Quakers had been on a roll, having won seven straight. A miscue by Rider here, a mistake there and the game was the Quakers' for the taking. With a pair of costly Bronc errors, Penn had a two-run lead in the late innings. Then the roof caved in. After Penn was given yesterday's game by Rider, it graciously gave it back in a disastrous eighth inning. There weren't any real unpreventible blunders, just a host of mental mistakes. A mindless balk. Confusion on a bunt. A botched pickoff attempt at first base. "Basically, when you're winning a lot of games, those are the kinds of games you usually win, because you're not supposed to," Penn coach Bob Seddon said. "With a 4-2 lead in the seventh inning, we really didn't earn a lot. They kind of gave it to us.?We just didn't put them away. And then the home run ball beat us." There were three home runs in all -- titanic shots considering the gusty winds. Bower Field wasn't exactly a pitcher's paradise on this occasion. Adam Rubin is a Wharton junior from Bellmore, N.Y., and sports editor of The Daily Pennsylvanian.