Baseball batters Golden Rams on a Carlon 2-run blast

Joe Carlon's 8th inning shot was one of three Quakers longballs in yesterday's win. Bower Field has now entered the ranks of Coors Field and the Kingdome -- it's a launching pad. Well, at least it was yesterday. "The ball seemed to be carrying pretty well today. This place is usually a wind tunnel," Penn second baseman Joe Carlon said. "It's a graveyard as far as homeruns." Carlon was yesterday's resident expert. The senior hit a two-run homer to put the Quakers ahead 10-8 in the bottom of the eighth inning. Penn (3-7) closed the door on the Golden Rams an inning later, beating West Chester (0-11) by a 10-9 final. Bower Field looked more like the graveyard the rest of the time; every fan and player sought refuge from the cold wind in some corner, and the low energy translated into sloppy play. When Carlon hit Penn's third homer of the game, however, the entire bench cleared, and all of a sudden it seemed like some heat returned to the blue-jacketed bodies. Penn coach Bob Seddon turned around and said, "that was the farthest ball I've seen hit over the left-field fence in years," as he ran out to join the celebration at home plate. Regardless of what the tape measured, Carlon's bomb served a purely functional purpose -- it gave his team a needed win. The Bucks County native went into the at bat with one job in mind, and it was not to hit the ball onto the train tracks. "In that situation I'm trying to drive the ball in the gap and get the run home," Carlon said. "Coach has been telling us to look for one pitch in one spot. Everyone has a different zone, but everyone is looking for that one first pitch so you can get a swing." Carlon wasn't the only one to get in on the action. Penn junior Glen Ambrosius (.359 batting average) began the hit parade with a towering two-run blast that cleared the left center wall, and dented the scoreboard. Sophomore Jeremy McDowell (two hits, three runs batted in) pitched in with a line-drive three-run shot, that just cleared the fence in the third, putting the Quakers up 6-4. The long ball was not the only story of the game. Sporadic defense and inconsistent pitching marred both Penn and the Golden Rams. Armen Simonion took the hill for the Quakers with his 2.04 earned run average, but was unable to get into the fourth inning. Simonian only allowed two earned runs on five hits, but had minimal success establishing the curve ball. The senior seemed hampered with what Seddon called "soreness of the lats," consistently registering about 79 miles per hour on the radar gun, versus the mid-80s he achieved in Florida. "The eight guys out there, that's a good team. That team can win a lot of games," Seddon said. "But pitching -- 90 percent of it is out on that hill. So if those guys put it together, we'll have a good team." Lefty Ray Broome got the nod in the fourth inning, but also pitched inconsistently. The junior was as well only able to last three innings, allowing seven runs. Broome was "hot and cold" according to Penn assistant coach Bill Wagner, walking four and striking out four, using primarily a fastball. Travis Arbogast was Penn's third arm, relieving Broome in the top half of the seventh. The former Quakers tight end was thrown in the mix with base runner on second and third and no outs. Arbogast managed to bring the bleeding to a stand still, allowing only one of the two inherited runners to score. "I've seem him as a starter and he is a better closer. He can pitch in all four games, he's got a rubber arm," Wagner said. "If Travis doesn't hit anyone and he doesn't walk anybody, he can be a good closer." Arbogast left the inning with an 8-8 tie, and after Carlon's homer, never surrendered the lead. "I'm used to being in those situations, having done some closing last year," Arbogast said. "I have a lot of confidence in the guys behind me. If I do my job the fielders will get the outs." The nine runs and 14 hits allowed by Quakers' pitchers were underwhelming, but West Chester's pitchers also lacked sparkling numbers. Golden Rams starter Mike Gibbons took most of the burden on his shoulders. The junior allowed all 10 Penn runs on 10 hits, including the three homeruns -- and Carlon's game winner. "I felt like he earned it. I knew when I went out there, and if he told me he felt alright I was going to leave him in," West Chester coach Jack Hopkins said of leaving Gibbons in the game in the eighth. "He earned the right to battle it. The catcher actually told me that he thought he was throwing harder than in the third inning." Hopkins didn't pull Gibbons until the ninth, in favor of Greg Zinicola. His starter took the loss after the eighth inning homer. "[Gibbons] looked like he wanted to hand me the ball and I said 'don't you want it' and he said 'yeah I want it,'" Hopkins said. "He was under the impression that I was on my second trip to the mound, but I pretty much went out there to see that he was okay." Fielding mistakes and inconsistent pitching aside, the Quakers found a way to win. Penn certainly isn't going to become known as the Bower Bombers. The next step is to put together a consistent offensive attack and a solid pitching performance in the same game. When the Quakers face St. Joe's at 3 p.m. today on Bower Field, the odds are homers won't be flying out of the park again. The Hawks (7-9) are led by highly-touted left hander Chris Heck, who is projected to be a first round pick in June's amateur draft. "Really we're just trying to play a good game tomorrow, play sharp, get something rolling into the weekend," Carlon said. "Nothing matters except the Ivy League games. We just want to go out there and get rid of the mistakes." Bower Field may be the usual "graveyard" today, and fundamentals will be the key. Whether the Quakers face Heck or any other pitcher, Penn will need strong pitching and good defense to win.