Baseball endures 1-8 California trip

Getting outscored 132-40 in nine games wasn't exactly what Penn baseball coach Bob Seddon had in mind when his team left for a spring break trip to California. Sure, his team had been outdoors only a handful of times all year. Yes, all of Penn's opponents had played at least 12 games. And yeah, this was the highest-quality opposition Seddon had seen in his 29 years as coach. But to come away with a 1-8 record and a 10.95 staff earned run average? "The teams out there were very strong and we were not competitive," Seddon said. "We played good teams but we played lousy on top of it. We could have been playing East Podunk and we would have had trouble." The trip started off inauspiciously with a 21-3 loss to Cal State-Pomona. Penn jumped out 2-1 after one inning -- but then the floodgates opened. A seven-run fourth and a five-run sixth inning iced the cake for Pomona in the first game of a doubleheader. The nightcap proved a bit more interesting, with Penn faltering in the last inning to lose 5-4. Quakers ace Sean McDonald came into the game in the bottom of the seventh inning with a 4-3 lead. After retiring Pomona's No. 3 hitter, McDonald gave up a grounder to second base. Second baseman Shawn Spiezio fielded the ball but pulled his hamstring on the pivot and then separated his shoulder as he fell to the ground. Spiezio was out for the rest of the trip. After a hit batsman put runners on first and second, both baserunners scored on a fielding mixup and an error on rightfielder Kevin McCabe, giving the Broncos the heartbreaking victory. The next day brought Penn's lone win -- 14-4 over Whittier College. Three freshmen pitchers -- Mike Mattern, Mark Lacerenza and Will Clark -- combined to scatter seven hits over nine innings. "[Pitching] kept us in the ballgame," McDonald said. "We didn't fall behind early." With the pitchers keeping the Poets' bats at bay, the Quakers had a chance to utilize a more aggressive offense. All four of the Quakers' stolen bases in the trip came against Whittier. Captain Glen Ambrosius highlighted the day with Penn's first home run of the season -- a towering grand slam. "It was a bomb," Seddon said. "It went over fences, over telephone poles -- he really hit it." After the win, however, the bright spots were few and far between for the Quakers, as they dropped their next six games by an average of almost 14 runs. Even though Penn faced pitchers that will be drafted by Major League teams next season, McDonald said that cannot explain away the losses. "That would be copping out," he said. "It doesn't excuse our fielding percentage and not getting big hits." But the performances of the freshmen pitchers remains a positive. "They hung in there facing tremendous adversity," McDonald said. "They really showed composure through [fielding] errors and tough umps." In addition to picking up the team's only victory, Mattern pitched six solid innings against undefeated North Carolina, which is ranked No. 5 in the nation. "He did a hell of a job against North Carolina," McDonald said of Mattern, who gave up five runs, three of them earned, to the Tar Heels. "He has what it takes to get quality hitters out." Junior Jeff Gregorio also made a case for himself in a tight race for the starting catcher spot. He hit .407 on the trip with a homer and four RBIs. But Seddon still does not know just how his team will rebound from the trip. "I think you're going to find out what kind of team we're going to be in the next week and a half," Seddon said.

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