Baseball comes back to beat Lehigh

The Penn baseball team used a five-run seventh inning explosion to turn a 3-2 deficit into its second straight win. Good things come to those who wait. So it was for the Penn baseball team yesterday at Bower Field. After suffering through six strong innings by Lehigh's starting pitcher, good things finally came when the Quakers found their way into the visitor's bullpen. Powered by eight runs in its final two at-bats, Penn pulled out its second 'W' in a row -- a come-from behind 10-6 win. "We were down one run at that point and we kind of sensed that the end was coming near," Penn senior Russ Farscht said of his team's 3-2 deficit heading into the seventh inning. "So it was good to score [several runs] and get some clutch hits with two outs. "We have a really good hitting squad, and our pitching is improving, so we're really coming together here." Yesterday's game started off on the right foot for the Quakers -- and for sophomore Jim Mullen in particular. The third baseman started a 5-4-3 double play to keep Lehigh (3-12) scoreless in the top of the first, then planted the second pitch he saw over the left field wall to lead off the bottom of the inning. The 340-foot blast, Mullen's second on the year, gave the Quakers (3-8) a quick 1-0 lead. "In California, we got behind early, so we wanted a good quick opening -- and we were able to get ahead of Lehigh [like we wanted] today," Mullen said. "In the last two games, we've really started to put some hits together and get the runners in." After Mullen's home run, however, the Quakers were unable to put hits together and tally another score for what seemed like an eternity. The first five innings saw the Quakers get plenty of chances, but the home team stranded seven men and struggled to get the hit needed to drive in the second run. Lehigh starter Dave Cerminaro, meanwhile, was in the midst of a solid outing on the mound. He gave up nine of Penn's 15 total hits on the day but worked his way out of one-out jams in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings. "We were on the ball and we knew it was just a matter of time before it started going our way," Quakers senior captain Glen Ambrosius said. "We weren't letting what happened at the plate affect the other aspects of our game -- our pitching really kept us in it." On the other side of the field, Penn starter Matt Hepler matched him, throwing three strong innings and allowing only one run while striking out three. Sophomore Brian Burket relieved Hepler and also pitched well, striking out five in three innings. However, the first of the three walks Burket allowed came back to haunt him on a Lehigh dinger over the left field fence. The visitors caught a break when an outfield collision allowed a Mountain Hawks run to score on a shallow sacrifice fly in the third. Then, the two-out, two-run home run off Burket by Lehigh leftfielder Jared Gordon gave the visitors a 3-1 lead in the fourth. The score stayed this way for several frames and it appeared Penn might be limited to a quiet day at the plate. But looks proved to be deceiving as the Quakers would score nine runs in the final three innings. Farscht took the first pitch from Cerminaro in the sixth and hit a bullet down the right field line for his first home run of the season. "It was nice to get that first one -- it is always the toughest of the year," Farscht said. The first baseman should know -- he hit six in '98, including one against Lehigh. Overall Farscht had a stellar day, reaching base five times and recording four hits, three runs and two RBIs. "Russ looked confident at the plate today," Penn assistant coach Bill Wagner said. "His home run left the park before the [crosswind] could do anything about it. He had a couple of clutch hits -- including one with two outs." This particular clutch hit was one of many for the Quakers during their game-breaking seventh inning. Lehigh had removed Cerminaro before this frame, and Penn wasted no time jumping on the Lehigh bullpen. In an inning that seemed to stretch forever, the Quakers sent 10 men to the plate, five of whom came around to score. The Mountain Hawks shuffled through four relievers like a deck of cards, trying to find someone capable of slamming the door shut. "In retrospect, looking back, [Cerminaro] should have stayed in," Lehigh coach Sean Leary said. "He was pitching very well, but we took him out because we have our league games coming up this weekend. "And then we brought in the next two relievers, and they both had trouble finding the plate." Ambrosius, Ronald Rolph, Farscht, Anthony Napolitano and Mullen were all there to drive the ball into the outfield when Lehigh's hurlers could find the plate. The last four notched an assortment of big hits with two outs. Three other Quakers gladly accepted free passes from the suddenly erratic Lehigh staff and when all was said and done, Penn led 7-3. The next Quakers at-bat saw the team net three more runs that would prove necessary in the win. With two outs, an errant throw to first by Lehigh third baseman Anthony Piccola allowed Penn catcher Jeff Gregorio to score. Three batters later, Gordon -- his team's hero to that point with a double and a home run -- dropped a fly ball off the bat of Penn's Jeremy McDowell, allowing the Quakers' ninth and 10th runs to score. "We're averaging about three errors a game and we had three today which cost us about three or four unearned runs," Leary said. Three Quakers runs in the eighth proved fortuitous as freshman Mike Mattern nearly gave fans ulcers in closing out the final three innings. In spite of a three-run, three-walk and three-wild-pitch effort, Mattern battled back to strike out the side in the ninth to pick up his third win. Mattern was helped, no doubt, by the Quakers strong infield play. Ambrosius started a critical double play by catching a line drive and throwing to Napolitano at second base to double up the Lehigh runner. "We beat a team I thought we were better than," Penn coach Bob Seddon said. "And I think the same thing should happen the rest of this week, personally." The Quakers will find out soon enough, as the team travels to St. Joseph's for a 3 p.m. game this afternoon. The Hawks (9-9-1) and the Quakers played to a rare tie in last year's meeting, when the game was called due to darkness. With Penn likely to use two freshmen -- Mark Lacerenza and Will Clark -- on the mound on the road today, it will be up to the Quakers to prove they can hang with the Hawks and pick up their third straight win.

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