Late homer lifts Cornell past Quakers

After the Penn baseball team won the first game, 5-4, the squad lost on a homer in the seventh of the nightcap. Big Red, big rain, big rally, big home run. That pretty much sums up the Penn baseball team's weekend. The Quakers traveled to Ithaca, N.Y., to face Cornell, in what was to be a four-game weekend. Saturday's doubleheader was rained out and rescheduled for today. The two games played yesterday produced a split, both determined by one run. The Quakers sent Armen Simonian to the mound in the first matchup. "Armen has had better games, but he pitched well," Penn coach Bob Seddon said. "He won the game for us. That was his job and he did it." Simonian pitched a complete game, working himself out of some jams along the way. The junior got through the first flawlessly after letting up a hit to Cornell's leadoff man, Michael Macrie. The Quakers' attack came early and often. Penn wasted no time scoring, as first baseman Russ Farscht started a first-inning rally with a one-out double. Mark Nagata and Jeremy Milken then followed suit, putting two more doubles past the Big Red, giving the Quakers a two-run lead. Penn then added to their leads with a manufactured run in the second. After a sacrifice bunt by second baseman Oliver Hahl to advance Drew Corradini, freshman Kevin McCabe singled in the third Quaker run. The Big Red then struck right back for their first run of the game in the second. Cornell catcher Eric Kirby got a hold a Simonian pitch and sent it over the rightfield fence for a solo shot. "I felt pretty sharp. The location of some of the pitches could have been better," Simonian said of his performance. "I have had good stuff [the last two games], but the location is the important part." Cornell got on the board next, in a big fourth inning. After an error by Hahl, Simonian let another runner on, setting the stage for Cornell's David Jacobs. "It didn't effect me too much," Simonian said of the error. "We've been playing such good defense, I didn't really worry about it too much. I made a mistake up in the zone to a pretty good hitter, and he just met it on the good part of the bat." Simonian's mistake translated into the Jacobs bomb to centerfield, and a three-run tally for the Big Red, giving them back the lead. Cornell would score no more, and the Quakers regained the lead in the sixth. Penn scored twice and went ahead for good, as Glen Ambrosius singled, scored and drove in a run. Simonian's complete game effort was enough, as the the Quakers held on for the 5-4 victory. The second game stayed equally close. A.B. Fischer got the starting bid in the tail end of the doubleheader. Penn kept the bats warm during the break after the first game, scoring in the first again. "One of our goals was to score early, and we did it in both games. But we should have had another on Nagata's hit," Seddon said. With Simonian (playing rightfield for game two) on second base, Nagata hit a laser to rightfield. Unable to judge to the ball, Simonian looked to tag up, but the shot fell out of the air and hit the fence. "It looked like a homer, but then it dove," Seddon said. "Minor baserunning mistakes hurt us," Simonian said of the play. "We were aggressive as a team, especially with the bat." The aggressive bats translated into only two more runs for Penn, leaving the rest to Fischer. After Cornell pulled ahead with consecutive scoring innings in the fourth and fifth, Penn came back to tie the game in the sixth. Ambrosius came up big with the stick for the second time. His leadoff double put him in scoring position for a Dave Corleto RBI single. With the game tied, the Quakers put the ball in the hands of Fischer in hopes of finding the same ability to complete the game that Simonian showed earlier in the afternoon. "Fischer notched a good game, but it turned out not to be good enough," Seddon said. Not good enough resulted in a one-out, game-winning homer by Cornell shortstop Bill Walkenbach. The Quakers left the field shaking their heads in disbelief, as they saw game two slip from under them. "You lose on a home run in the bottom of the seventh, on a ball the left-fielder had in his glove, you are going to be disappointed," Seddon said. The Quakers now find themselves in a must-win situation in today's make up of the Saturday rainouts. Penn will try to keep the bats alive behind juniors Alex Hayden and Ed Kimlin, making his first career Ivy League start, and avenge the Cornell's late heroics.

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