Big hits give Baseball 'W'

BALTIMORE -- Maybe it was just the gusting wind that blew their fly balls a little further. Maybe it was just a little bit of luck left over from St. Patrick's Day. But it was probably just the plain determination of the Penn baseball team. Whatever forces were at work yesterday at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County, the Quakers (2-8) came away happy, pulling out of a six-game tailspin with an impressive 10-4 beating of the Retrievers (4-6). "We did everything well today," Penn coach Bob Seddon said. "We fielded and we made the plays, we hit the ball real well, and we got ahead in the game -- which we hadn't done at all [before this game]." All nine Penn starters recorded a hit by the sixth inning and eight notched RBIs as well. But the most impressive offensive numbers posted by the Quakers were two and one -- the number of home runs the Quakers hit in the win, and the number of runs given up by freshman Mike Mattern in six innings of relief. The turning point in the game came in the third and fourth innings. Though the Quakers led 5-3 going into the bottom of the third, they'd seen the home team put a "3" on the scoreboard in the second to temporarily take a 3-2 lead. Penn needed a stop. Enter Mattern. "I wasn't expecting to come in that early in the game," Mattern said. "[Starter] Sean [McDonald] was supposed to go six or seven so I had to get ready pretty quick, and I did my best." The freshman's "best" promptly mowed down the Retrievers in order in the third, and Mattern was quickly on his way to his second win. The hurler allowed only one run while recording 10 ground ball outs. "Mattern picked up after the second inning and pitched very, very well," Seddon said. But would the Quakers remain content with their two-run lead? That question was answered when Quakers junior leftfielder Kevin McCabe stepped into the batters box to lead off the top of the fourth. All McCabe did was take an offering from Retrievers junior Tom Bloom and deposit it beyond the left field fence for his first collegiate home run. The blast, which chased the UMBC starter from the game, surprised his coach, his teammates and himself. "I owe him a dinner," Seddon said happily. "I said [to McCabe], 'If you ever hit a home run in four years, I'll gladly buy you a dinner.'" "It felt good," McCabe said. "[Seddon] gives me a lot of crap for that. It's not my game and I obviously don't go up their trying to hit home runs. "But it happened today." McCabe's first career home run couldn't have "happened" at a better time, opening the floodgates for the Quakers' second-straight three-run inning, and giving Mattern a five-run cushion to work with. "It's always nice to pitch with a lead, especially when the lead is more than two or three runs," Mattern said. "It lets you pitch your game. You're in control and you don't have to worry about making mistakes as much." Against a young Retrievers squad, Mattern performed like a veteran. "Seven out of our nine hitters are first-year Division I performers," Retrievers coach John Jancuska said. "And until the kids learn and adjust, they'll struggle a little bit? when they face decent college pitching. "They walked a few batters and allowed us to get a few things going? but it's hard for us to score a lot of runs when we have a lot of young kids." On the other side of the ball, the Quakers seemed just as comfortable at bat. Sophomore third basemen Jim Mullen added a two-run blast in the sixth. Four Quakers found the gap for doubles, led by senior shortstop Glen Ambrosius with two. And sophomore Ronald Rolph recorded a stolen base to go with his two hits. Despite striking out nine times, Penn was able to pull the ball, hit the other way and execute the hit-and-run seemingly at will. "You get a bunch of hits together like that and things go right for you, and you're going to have success," McCabe said. "We just had a couple innings where we rolled -- and we had a nice two-out rally." But the major difference between yesterday's win and last week's play in California was definitely the improved pitching and defense. Quakers hurlers McDonald, Mattern and John Dolan struck out 10, gave up only one two-out hit and didn't let the Retrievers hit fly balls up into the tricky wind. "I throw a lot of breaking balls for out pitches," Mattern said. "I try to get people out on their front foot and then get the guys to hit it on the ground." Penn also turned a bases-loaded double play to get out of a second-inning jam and fended off the Retrievers attempts to bunt all afternoon. "There's three things you've got to do in baseball -- hit, field and pitch.," Seddon said. "We pitched, we fielded and we hit. Can't lose. That's the bottom line -- that's why we won."

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