Quakers split pair with Pace

The Ivy League is by no means the most powerful collegiate baseball conference, but the Pace Setters feel it is a good barometer for the tests they will face in the Mid-Continent Conference this year. That's why Pace has littered its pre-conference schedule with Ancient Eight teams. The Setters' first dose of Ivy competition came Saturday at Penn's Bower Field. The results were mixed for both teams. The first game saw more of what has plagued Penn through most of its six losses this season -- good pitching but no offense to support it. The Quakers found their bats in the second game and rode another excellent pitching performance to a 5-2 win. After getting hammered for 10 runs in two outings in Florida, team captain Dan Galles settled down in the first game against Pace (4-7). He went the distance and held the Setters to two runs through six innings. But Pace pitcher Frank Chibarro was even better against the Quakers (4-7), who were held to no runs and one hit through six. "Our pitching is adequate to win," Penn coach Bob Seddon said. "Galles pitched a pretty good game. We just had no hits. We had some trouble scoring runs." Designated hitter Mark DeRosa nailed two balls to the deepest part of the ballpark, but neither would go out for him. First baseman Mike Shannon, Penn's best hitter thus far this season, got the Quakers' lone run of the game in the seventh and final inning after reaching base with a double. But that run came too late to mean anything, because Galles had finally tired in the top half of the seventh and allowed four runs on three hits and an error. Pace won going away, 6-1. The Setters started the second game building on the offensive momentum they gained at the end of the first. A two-run home run by Pace catcher Robert Zachmann gave the Setters an early lead. But Penn pitcher Ed Haughey quickly settled down, and Pace would never seriously threaten again. "Ed Haughey made maybe two mistakes the entire game," Seddon said. "He pitched a really fine game." Penn was also fine, if not spectacular, on offense. The Quakers cut the Setters' lead in half in the first inning, then took their first lead of the day in the third. Third baseman Rob Naddelman knocked in the go-ahead run with a double into left center. Penn would never relinquish that lead. A sacrifice fly by DeRosa in the next inning upped the Quakers' advantage to 4-2. Penn put the game away in the sixth with a perfectly executed suicide squeeze by freshman Armen Simonian. Freshman Mark Nagata, who had tripled, scored the run as Penn wrapped up its most impressive performance of the season. Haughey got the win, his first of the year. "I just tried to throw strikes and keep the ball down," Haughey said. "The defense played a great game for me and our hitters came through. We finally put those three elements together." · Nagata was in the lineup in place of catcher Rick Burt, who missed his second and third straight games with a hamstring injury. While Burt said he is anxious to get back in action, Seddon is not so eager for that to happen. He can't help but think about a former Penn catcher, Ben Brier. "He aggravated an injury and we lost him for the entire [Ivy League season]," Seddon said. "We really didn't want to take the chance of [Burt] hurting himself again." Seddon was unsure when Burt would return to the lineup. Sports writer Jed Walentas contributed to this story.

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