Penn's fate in the hands of four teams

The Penn baseball team resumes its tied game with Columbia. The Penn baseball team is ready to take what will probably be its shortest trip of the season. The five hours the team will be stuck in a bus is an eternity compared to what could be a one-inning continuation of a rain-shortened game with Columbia. But after taking three games from Princeton on Saturday and Sunday, the fate of the Gehrig Division is not just in Penn's hands, but also the hands of the Tigers, Lions and Big Red. The division can be won by either Penn (19-19-1, 10-9-1 Ivy League) or Princeton (14-19, 8-8). The Tigers have four games in a home-and-home doubleheader with Cornell this weekend. If Princeton can sweep the Big Red, they automatically clinch the Gehrig title. If Cornell can take one from Princeton, the Quakers would need to defeat Columbia, which would result in the second Penn-Princeton one-game playoff in as many years. If Princeton and Cornell split, then a Penn win against the Lions clinches the division for the Red and Blue. So the Quakers baseball team finds itself in a rare situation -- actually making up a rainout. The game was tied 8-8 at the end of seven innings, but the problems focus on the lineup. On March 29, when the game was originally suspended, the Quakers had quite a different lineup at the plate and in the field. Not to mention, Penn had already made several substitutions which will affect Saturday's resumption. For instance, Russ Farscht, who was playing in rightfield, had been pulled due to a turned ankle. Therefore, the Quakers lose their fourth-best hitter. In addition, Travis Arbogast, who was on the mound in relief will be replaced by staff ace Armen Simonian, according to coach Bob Seddon. Seddon continued to say that Simonian, Penn's No. 3 hitter, will bat for himself, which would eliminate the designated hitter. In that case, Mark Nagata Penn's best hitter, could only be used once -- in a pinch-hitting situation. Columbia has its share of problems too, including what to do with catcher Travis Hunter. "Hunter's in that game, and that's a plus," Seddon said. "Because he can't throw a lick." In addition, Columbia is playing Iona at noon on Saturday, preceding the 3:30 p.m. start of their Penn contest. Princeton's situation is similar to last year's in that they are in the driver's seat of their own destiny. Last year, they needed to win three against the Big Red, but came up short, winning just two, to pit Penn and Princeton in a Gehrig division tiebreaker. If that were to be the case, Penn's Mike Greenwood could very well get the call to pitch. Greenwood, who was pulled from Penn's Ivy weekend starting rotation, moved back to his slot on Saturday. "We sent [Greenwood] over to Princeton to scout Temple, and he has always pitched well against Princeton," Seddon said. "He found his changeup curveball -- we haven't seen it in weeks -- and we were very optimistic about him. He's played very well against them, and if we play Princeton again, it could be Greenwood." Unbeknownst to the coaches, however, Greenwood was undergoing electric treatment on his elbow, on the advice of trainer Jay Effrece. The junior was administered small electrical impulses to loosen the muscles around his elbow. It worked wonders. Greenwood allowed just one earned run and four hits in a complete game performance against the Tigers in the nightcap of Saturday's doubleheader. In addition, the redheaded hurler struck out five and walked two of the 26 batters he faced in Penn's 5-1 victory. In the game preceding Greenwood's performance, Arbogast pitched in a non-closing situation with the job of simply shutting the Tigers down and allowing the Quakers to score the go-ahead run first. It was like clockwork. Tied 2-2 in the top of the 12th inning, Arbogast allowed two base runners in two innings. Meanwhile, after being held scoreless in the 12th, Penn scored the game-winner when Tigers third baseman Asher Griffin committed his second error of the contest, allowing Glen Ambrosius to score the winning run. Arbogast got his first of two wins on the weekend. Sunday's first game provided the same dramas Saturday's opener. Down 5-1 heading into the bottom of the seventh, Penn took advantage of two one-out walks and a double down the leftfield line by Drew Corradini to tie the game. Arbogast shut down Princeton once again in the eighth, even with two intentional walks in one inning to load the bases. Penn then won the game as Simonian slapped a pitch down the rightfield line to score Joe Carlon from second base.