Solid pitching earns Penn split with lowly Explorers

After yesterday's doubleheader with La Salle at Bower Field, the Penn baseball players jogged in right field. Junior right fielder Sean Turner stayed in the dugout and iced his bruised heel. As the Quakers prepared for the postgame meeting, starting pitcher Dan Galles iced his elbow and his shoulder. Shortstop Mark DeRosa, recovering from a shoulder injury, also kept an ice bag on his shoulder. And catcher Rick Burt, who caught both games, complained about the pain of the ice on his elbow. It did not look like a team pleased with its performance yesterday. And after a lengthy talk led by coach Bob Seddon, the players' demeanors did not improve. After splitting the twin bill with the lowly Explorers, 11-3 and 0-4, Penn knows it has to become more consistent before its league opener with Harvard Saturday. "Each year, each team has to realize it's hard to win both games of a doubleheader," Seddon said. "It's hard, not easy. It was a disappointment, especially since we got shut out in the second game." No one epitomized yesterday's inconsistencies more than star hitter Mike Shannon. The hot-hitting junior had his way in the first contest. He went four for four, with two base hits, a double and a triple, in addition to collecting three runs batted in and scoring twice himself. Tim Henwood also went two for three, both doubles, and knocked in two runs while crossing home plate three times. La Salle starting pitcher Dan Fritz had trouble hitting his spots and was knocked out of the contest after just three innings. The Quakers (6-8), led by Shannon's bat, hit Fritz's fastball and his slider -- when they made it into the strike zone. But the second game did not appear to feature the same two squads. Although the names in the starting lineups were similar, the explosive Penn bats featured in the first contest were nowhere to be seen in the nightcap. After spanking Fritz, Shannon couldn't touch Chris Seiler. Shannon struck out, hit a routine fly ball to center field and was thrown out by the catcher on a grounder that barely travelled a foot. Seiler exploited his slider and changeup to keep Penn off balance. On his way to a complete-game shutout, Seiler faced just 25 batters, four over the minimum 21, to help the Explorers (3-17) split the doubleheader. "We were too satisfied with our victory in the first game," Shannon said. "We came out flat. Everyone took it for granted that we were going to win the second game." The Quakers did collect six hits against Seiler, but Penn was unable to string anything together. And when consecutive batters did make contact, it seemed like the Explorers would always turn a double play. "You can't get behind in a seven-inning game," Seddon said. "They jumped out early. In a seven-inning game when you jump out early, you put the other team behind the eight ball." Only the Penn pitching kept the Quakers together. Ed Haughey and Dan Galles pitched back-to-back complete games. Haughey (7 innings pitched, 7 hits, 3 earned runs, 10 strikeouts) fought through numerous potentially dangerous spots to get the victory in the opener. In a similar fashion, Galles ran into early troubles due to control problems and defensive errors. But even after allowing three unearned runs in the first two innings, Galles (7 innings pitched, 8 hits, 1 earned run, 9 strikeouts) settled down and kept the Explorers at bay the rest of the game. But without help from the offense, it was not enough. "They've been sharper," Seddon said of his two top starting pitchers, "but they showed a lot of guts and worked through it." With the Ivy League opener just days away, it is now the time to show more than guts on the mound. To win the division, it's going to take consistency on the mound, in the field and at the plate. Good pitching will only carry the Quakers so far. This weekend it carried them to a split. That probably won't be good enough in the future.

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