Hahl drives in winning run in ninth

With the bases loaded in the ninth, Penn baseball freshman Oliver Hahl got the game-winner. Penn second baseman Oliver Hahl has not seen much playing time this season. But whenever the Quakers freshman has stepped into the batter's box, he's made it count. Yesterday afternoon, the rookie second baseman stepped up to the plate in a situation which baseball players of all levels stay up nights dreaming about. The scene was the bottom of the ninth, a 10-all tie, bases juiced and nobody out. Lehigh's left-hander James Phillips had just intentionally walked Penn catcher Dave Corletto to load the bases for Hahl. All the frosh needed to do was to knock the ball out of the infield, and fleet-footed outfielder Drew Corradini could cross the plate -- a simple task of execution -- and the Quakers No. 9 hitter would potentially go home a hero. Phillips, the 5'11" southpaw, got out in front of the Hahl 1-and-2, making the challenge all the more difficult. Phillips' fourth delivery, a high fastball had Hahl fooled; he popped it up onto the train tracks behind Bower Field. But on pitch No. 5, Lehigh catcher Micah DaMato made the mistake of setting an outside target. Phillips delivered a fastball and Hahl went with the pitch, slicing it toward right field and sending Mountain Hawks right fielder Adam Millsom back. Millsom made the grab in short right and threw on the money to DaMato -- but not before Corradini could slide under the tag, and the Quakers could sneak away with an 11-10 win. "The pitchers were putting the ball away from us," Penn captain Joe Carlon said. "We are trying to go with it where it is pitched." The Engineers had tied the game against the Quakers in the top of the eighth after Lehigh shortstop Patrick McElwee singled off Penn's Todd Mahoney, and second baseman Daniel Spisak hit a high chopper to third -- which Penn third baseman Glen Ambrosius charged and threw over the head of first baseman Russ Farscht for a two-base error. Penn coach Bob Seddon then turned to his closer, Travis Arbogast, who surrendered an RBI base hit to Lehigh star hitter Benjamin Talbott. After Talbott's single, however, Penn's hard throwing right-hander took over. Arbogast caught Mountain Hawks' cleanup hitter Keith Treonze looking on a brilliant fastball over the inside corner of the plate. Arbogast then threw a fastball high and tight to Lehigh's Chad Kusko, which the Mountain Hawks first baseman bunted on a line-drive in front of the plate. Arbogast sprinted off the mound and made a head-long dive to snare Kusko's bunt. He then threw on to Ambrosius at third to complete the 1-5 double play. "When you've got a guy at third in a tight ballgame like that, you can only hope to throw it up and in to hit him or make him pop it up," Arbogast said. "Sometimes the luck goes our way." But it seemed something more than luck was working for Arbogast, who got the Quakers out of a jam in the eighth and allowed just a walk to Daniel Kulp in the ninth en route to earning the "W." The right-hander was the only Quakers pitcher not to yield a run as well as the only one to retire Treonze in his five trips to the plate. The three left-handers that proceeded Arbogast each struggled against the middle of Lehigh's order, namely Talbott and Treonze. Quakers starter Ray Broome allowed three runs to cross the plate in the first inning before setting down over the next two. Mike Greenwood pitched a strong fourth and sixth, but allowed base hits to Talbott and Treonze in the fifth -- each who came around to score. Mahoney allowed the same duo to cross the plate in the seventh. Offensively, the Quakers' bats came out rocking. Ambrosius broke out of his slump with a two-run homer over the left-centerfield fence in the first inning to cut the Mountain Hawks' lead to 3-2. That was just one of three hits on the day for the Quakers third baseman who finished the day a triple short of hitting for the cycle. "Ambrosius is getting excellent extension -- using the whole field," Penn hitting instructor Dan Young said. "He's going to the opposite field and leftfield." Centerfielder Drew Corradini also added three hits, including the clutch double the other way to lead off the ninth. Farscht -- whose single in the ninth moved Corradini to third -- entered the game for Trent Nagata in the sixth, and singled in his only two at-bats. Carlon and designated hitter Mark Nagata each also added two hits. Defensively, however, things were less spectacular for the Quakers, who committed three errors which translated into the same number of unearned runs for the Mountain Hawks. The Quakers' fielding plays did include the awesome, such as a great double play started by Carlon on a Phillip Stambaugh ball hit up the middle and a beautiful basket catch by Shawn Spiezio in right, reaching over the Quakers bullpen. But they also included the awful, such as two costly throwing errors on choppers to the left side of the infield in the eighth. Penn's 11-10 victory over Lehigh was not one of the prettiest games played at Bower Field. Nonetheless, the rocky road that set the stage for ninth-inning Quakers heroics may just give the Red and Blue the momentum they need heading into this weekend's do-or-die series at home against Princeton.

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