Penn tops Hawks in home debut

It is a baseball axiom that a combination of pitching, defense, and timely hitting will result in victories. Yesterday's game between Penn and St. Joseph's at Bower Field did nothing to dispel the conventional wisdom. The Quakers (4-6) swarmed the bases all afternoon, garnering ten hits and seven walks making Hawks starter Jack Marcellus the losing pitcher. The soft-tossing lefthander attempted to keep the Penn hitters off their stride by mixing fastballs and breaking pitches. He was not fooling anyone in the early innings, however, as Penn built an early lead en route to a 7-2 triumph in their first game north of Florida. It was a balanced offensive effort by the home team. Every player had a hit, except for designated hitter Dave Corleto. With Marcellus' control problems, the Quakers frequently found themselves ahead in the count or on base with a free pass. That allowed the hosts to pull ahead 4-1 after three innings. "I think our bats are starting to come alive, as you saw tonight -- people came through in the clutch," senior first baseman Mike Shannon said. But despite the lively bats of the hosts, the real story of the game was the performance of the Quakers' hurlers. Five pitchers, led by junior lefthander Mike Greenwood, held the Hawks' bats in check. Greenwood, making the first start of his collegiate career, pitched a hitless two innings and walked no one to start the game. "I wasn't nervous at all," Greenwood said. "I always feel more comfortable as a starter -- I have as much time as want to get myself ready." Junior Alex Hayden picked up the win. He worked the third and fourth innings giving up a run on two hits to up his mark to 2-1 on the young season. Also effective in relief for the Quakers were A.B. Fischer, Travis Arbogast, and Sean McDonald, who among them gave up just one earned run. Each had plenty of incentive with one starting spot in the Quakers' rotation still up for grabs. "They have all developed a third pitch, nice offspeed stuff, and they're beginning to mold into a pitching staff," Penn pitching coach Bill Wagner said. All the Penn pitchers worked in two inning shifts except for Arbogast who pitched just the ninth. All five hurlers were the beneficiaries of solid defense. Shortstop Mark DeRosa had to range far into the hole to his right to steal a hit from St. Joe's leadoff batter Dan Hefton in the sixth inning. The junior also made a difficult pivot on the game-ending 1-6-3 double play. "We think [the defense] has really been sharp so far," Wagner said. "It's probably one of the strongest teams defensively we've had in the infield in my 25 years. We've got a a very, very strong defensive team." DeRosa, the cleanup hitter, also made a contribution with the bat, doubling in Rick Burt with the first run of the game in the first inning. That inning could have been much bigger than one run if Sean Turner, in one of the Quakers' few mental lapses, had not been picked off first base after a leadoff walk.