Magic Slumber

Needing just two wins to clinch the GehrigNeeding just two wins to clinch the GehrigDivision title, Penn was swept by PrincetonNeeding just two wins to clinch the GehrigDivision title, Penn was swept by Princetonand lost sole possession of first place The Penn baseball team has been putting on clinics at the expense of other teams all season. This past Saturday and Sunday, however, Princeton decided it was time to take the Quakers to school. And during the Tigers' four-game sweep -- by scores of 14-10, 2-1, 10-2 and 10-0 -- it seemed the Quakers were putting on a clinic on how to ruin an excellent season. "It's very disappointing," Penn coach Bob Seddon said. "You play a whole season, and it comes down to two days, and you let it get away." Coming into the weekend only needing a split to earn a trip to the Ivy League championships, the Quakers appeared confident the title was already in hand. "Basically, they seemed like they wanted it more than we did," Penn pitcher A.B. Fischer said. "They got good pitching, they hit the shit out of the ball, they had good defense, and they just wanted it?They shut us down and basically pissed on us." The biggest problem Penn had was that it may have overlooked the Tigers, who Seddon has kept an eye on all year. "I said from the beginning of the year, 'watch out for Princeton,' " Seddon said. "I watched them like a hawk all year, and it surprised me that they lost five, six games." "It seemed like we just came in here figuring that we were going to win two games and clinch it, and it just didn't happen," Fischer said. "We had no idea that this was going to happen -- we were a better team with or without [co-captain Mike] Shannon." The absence of Shannon that Fischer referred to was the result of a gash along his right, and throwing, hand, which was injured off the field before the weekend. The other co-captain, catcher Rick Burt, also was absent from Sunday's doubleheader due to a death in the family Saturday afternoon. As a result, the Quakers lost their best batter and the team's on-field general. Second-string catcher Dave Corleto made some key mistakes -- not necessarily in calling pitches -- but with poor mid-play decisions. For example, Corleto told third baseman Derek Nemeth to let a bunt go foul, as opposed to scooping the ball up and getting the sure out. The ball stayed fair the whole way. Perhaps part of Corleto's decision came from the fact that Nemeth was plagued with poor fielding, especially on Sunday. The scorers, however, called most misplays as hits, making the box scores look like the Tigers were in batting practice. "When you look at the scoreboard it looked like a mockery because they had 10 runs and 12 hits [in the second game on Sunday,] when every time we made an error, they called it a hit." Fischer said. One example was during the second inning of the Sunday nightcap, when a ball in front of Nemeth bounced over his right shoulder into left field. It was ruled a hit. With the Quakers' Ivy season wrapped up, they will need to depend on Cornell to take at least two games of the four they play with Princeton next weekend. Penn is tied for the league lead with Princeton, but if the Tigers can eke out three wins in a home-and-away pair of doubleheaders, they will clinch the Gehrig crown outright. If they can only manage two wins on the weekend, there will be a Penn-Princeton one-game tiebreaker to decide who gets the pennant. "We're hoping they split the weekend, and it comes down to the two of us," Fischer said. "[The playoff game] will probably be at the beginning of the week, when all four of their starters have just pitched, and they'll have to throw their fifth guy." Seddon was not so optimistic. "I don't call [the season] over, because you never know," Seddon said. "But then you have to depend on someone else to help you. "It was very disappointing. The team wins 25 games, and then all of a sudden plumff. And then there's your season. And that's their season, and they know it." The Quakers began the weekend on a good note -- scoring three runs in the first inning -- but they immediately blew it, allowing four Princeton runners to cross the plate in the bottom of the inning. "We started off super," Seddon said. "We didn't get a good game out of Armen [Simonian]. Armen didn't pitch well. The tone was set offensively, but we didn't get the pitching." In the second game on Saturday Quakers' starter Mike Greenwood got the job done, allowing only two runs and six hits in a complete game. But the Penn offense struggled -- as would be the case for the rest of the weekend -- getting only five scattered hits and one run. All eyes will be on the Cornell-Princeton matchups next weekend. But with the level of play that the Tigers demonstrated this weekend, however, anything resembling the same attack will be tough to beat. "Princeton has a lot of talent. A lot of talent," Seddon said. "They really overachieved. They played really well." Added Fischer: "If they play like this, no one will beat them."