Baseball crushes Eagles with second inning surge

Fischer, Henwood homer, Shannon dominant on hill After yesterday's baseball game against Coppin State at Bower Field, Penn coach Bob Seddon stormed into the dugout, furious at what he had just witnessed. Seddon, in his 25th season as the Quakers' skipper, had rarely experienced such a display of errors and inconsistency. Seddon was not seething about what he had seen on the playing field -- Penn demolished the Eagles behind an eight-run second inning to win 13-3. Instead, the Penn coach was flabbergasted that the University of Pennsylvania Parking Services towed just about every car parked behind the field -- including the umpire's. "The University of Pennsylvania is a disaster when it comes to parking," Seddon fumed. "They tow everybody -- they towed the umpire, they tried to tow the coach. The University of Pennsylvania Parking Services has a real problem." But on the field, Seddon's squad had little problem disposing of overmatched Coppin State (7-16). Mike Shannon pitched a one-hitter through five innings and the bats of first baseman Allen Fischer and centerfielder Tim Henwood took care of the rest. After struggling at the plate since returning from their spring break trip, the Quakers (5-7) hit everything Eagles starter John Hamilton (1 1/3 innings, 9 runs, 6 hits) threw. The second-inning hit parade began with a comedy of Coppin State errors. After Michael Green doubled to the left-center gap, Sean Turner walked. Derek Nemeth got on base when Hamilton's throw to first could not be handled. Next, Burt -- playing for the first time in two weeks after recovering from a hamstring injury -- beat out a grounder bobbled by Eagles third baseman Jamal Davis. Then the hard hitting began. Henwood stroked the ball into center field. Armen Simonian drove the ball down the third-base line. Shannon crushed the ball to right field. And with a man on third base, Fischer exploded on an inside fastball, knocking it 350 feet for his first Penn career home run. When the second inning finally came to a close, the Quakers possessed an insurmountable 9-0 lead. "[Hamilton] did not throw very hard. When guys do not throw very hard, we tend to jump all over that," Fischer said. "It was the type of pitcher we love to face." That was more than enough for Shannon to work with. He struck out five Eagles looking and allowed only three base runners -- no one ever even reached second base on him. "[Shannon] didn't have his best stuff today, but he didn't seem to need it," Burt said of his batterymate. "Even without his best stuff, he's one of the best pitchers on the East Coast." As the game dragged on, Seddon took advantage of the large margin to play most of his players. Lance Berger and Mike Martin finished up for Shannon, while every position starter left before the game was eventually called due to darkness. Amid the twilight, as Seddon was locking the gate to the field and gathering his goods before heading home, he was still complaining about the parking. Luckily for Seddon, the game took care of itself. Now maybe someone could do something about the parking problem.

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