Darkness ends Penn rally in 9th

The Penn baseball team scored thrice in the ninth before darkness cut it short. It is the stuff of which legends are made. Bottom of the ninth, two out, one on, tie game, Penn standout and Monday's hero Joe Carlon at the plate and? the umpire calls the game. A remarkable last-inning comeback by the Quakers was thwarted yesterday as darkness compelled the home plate umpire to end the game with St. Joseph's. Penn was down 10-7 going into the final frame, when shortstop Glen Ambrosius started the inning with an infield single. Designated hitter Mark Nagata advanced him to third with a single to right. Rightfielder Armen Simonian then laced a two-run double to the warning track in straightaway center, scoring Ambrosius and pinch-runner Randy Ferrell. A wild pitch and a Russ Farscht base hit tied the game at 10. With Farscht on second after a fielder's choice and Shawn Spiezio on first after drawing a walk from St. Joe's pitcher Jim Boylan, Carlon was set to cap off the Quakers' comeback. But before he got that chance, the umpire stepped onto the field and said it was too dark to continue playing. The decision drew immediate criticism from Penn players, coaches and fans. Penn coach Bob Seddon left the dugout to argue while the Delta Kappa Epsilon-laden crowd chanted "Bullshit! Bullshit!" "It's ridiculous. It was dark before the inning started," said Ambrosius, who went 1-for-3 with one run batted in. "If they wanted to call it, they should have called it before they started the inning." Seddon shared Ambrosius' sentiments. "As an umpire, if you start an inning, you should finish it -- that's a cardinal rule of any umpire," he said. "And when you don't do it, you look bad." Seddon lamented what he thought was horrid umpiring throughout the game. "The game was poorly umpired -- both ways," Seddon said. "He hurt them, too. He let us get back in the game." The questionable calls came early and often yesterday. In the top half of the second inning, St. Joe's DH Mark Payes doubled down the third base line, but the ball appeared to skip by the bag in foul territory. In the third, Mark Nagata advanced to first on a dropped third strike. St. Joe's coach Jim Ertel contested that Nagata kicked the ball on his way down the first base line, but the umps let the play stand, leading to two Penn runs. Seddon, as well as assistant coach Bill Wagner, later admitted they thought the umpire blew the call. In the seventh inning, Penn freshman pitcher Matt Hepler was called for a balk, a call Seddon termed a "mystery." And both Seddon and Wagner criticized the home plate umpire's protean strike zone. Usually Seddon does not blast the officials, he said, but yesterday the officiating "affected the outcome of the game." Penn had trouble finding its offensive groove yesterday. Prior to their rally in the ninth, the Quakers could only muster four hits all game against the Hawks. "It was a little bit cold out, it took a while to get loose," Carlon said, referring to temperatures which dropped into the 40s as night drew near. Fortunately for the Quakers, though, they were helped out by sloppy St. Joe's pitching and fielding. The Hawks finished with five errors, seven walks and a hit batsman. Sean McDonald, the Quakers starter, pitched well in five innings of work. He allowed only three runs on seven hits while the Penn batters were struggling to find hits. Hepler came on in relief and pitched a good sixth inning, but ran into trouble in the seventh. After he walked the bases loaded, he gave up a two-run double to Hawks second baseman Kevin Kirkby, putting St. Joe's up 6-3. He then walked another batter and hit Hawks shortstop Tom Gibson before he was relieved by freshman Ron Rolph. The 6'2'' hurler walked two and allowed two runs, which were charged to Hepler, before getting out of the inning with an 8-3 deficit. "I think it was a little bit of the cold weather? and they haven't pitched since a week and a half ago," Ambrosius said. "Hepler threw the ball well, he just got into a little trouble and walked some guys." Assistant coach Wagner said Hepler has had the best control out of all the freshmen pitchers so far. He attributed the control problems to the erratic strike zone. "The ump started squeezing [Hepler], and he started squeezing the ball himself," Wagner said. Penn got back into the game in the bottom half of the inning, when St. Joe's reliever Mike Miller had control problems of his own. Miller walked four batters in a row before getting the hook. His replacement, Jim Boylan, gave up a sacrifice fly to Mark Nagata and the first of Simonian's two, two-run doubles, this one just barely inside the park, off the wall in left-center field. The Quakers on the whole were pleased with the comeback performance yesterday. "We battled back and tied," Farscht said, "but we would have liked to get that last at bat."

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