Baseball ends on a high note

The Penn baseball team ended a disappointing season by sinning three road games against Cornell. "We're going to win all four games at Cornell. And if you want to quote me on that, you can," Penn pitching coach Bill Wagner said a week ago. Unlikely as that seemed at the time -- the Quakers had just lost four to Princeton and 17 of 18 overall when Wagner made the prediction -- Penn almost pulled off this improbable task last weekend on Cornell's Hoy Field. The Quakers (9-28, 6-14 Ivy League) took the first three from the Big Red, 3-2, 8-5 and 4-1, before falling in their season finale 17-5. "For the first time all season, we learned how to win," Quakers coach Bob Seddon said. "We had a good weekend. It's a shame about the last game, but we played well." The trip to Cornell (9-23, 6-10) started off on the right foot for the Quakers, as leftfielder Jim Mullen's home run and centerfielder Kevin McCabe's RBI single gave Penn two early runs in the first game. After allowing two runs to knot the score at two, Penn starter Mike Mattern (6-3, 4.02 ERA) settled down on the mound, getting out of numerous jams and not allowing the Big Red a run after the third. The staff ace, who ended the year with 67 percent of the Quakers' victories, allowed only three hits while striking out seven in six innings of work. With two outs and nobody on in the fifth, Penn senior Russ Farscht stepped to the plate for what turned out to be the key point in the game. Showing his opposite-field power, the first baseman proceeded to smack his sixth home run to left-center. Thanks to the late-inning pitching of Mattern and sophomore Brian Burkett, Farscht's run stood up and Penn left Hoy Field with a 3-2 win. "Farscht had an unbelievable weekend," said Seddon of his first baseman who hit four home runs -- including one in his last collegiate at-bat on Sunday -- and knocked in eight runners during the series. But the Quakers weren't ready to stop right there. After spotting Cornell a 3-0 lead in the first inning of game two, Penn stormed back with four in the top of the second inning en route to an 8-5 come-from-behind win. A two-run double by junior second baseman Anthony Napolitano, who was 7-for-13 on the trip and hit .350 on the year, was the key to the four-run second. But the biggest inning came two frames later when, with the score tied, back-to-back home runs by junior Jeremy McDowell and Napolitano put Penn on top to stay, 6-4. Quakers starter Sean McDonald (2-6, 6.75) threw his fourth complete game and picked up a 'W' over Cornell for the second consecutive year. Following the Saturday sweep, the visitors, showing a confidence seldom seen in '99, came out again on Sunday obviously ready to play. Key hits and stolen bases by McCabe, Glen Ambrosius and Napolitano gave Penn a 4-0 lead after two. And that was a lot more than the Quakers' pitching needed. Sophomore starter Matt Hepler (1-5, 4.68) and freshman Dan Fitzgerald combined to shut the Big Red machine down -- completely. The two threw a one-hitter that saw no Cornell batters get the ball out of the infield in a 4-1 win. "My infield was playing great," Hepler said. "I was able to throw a lot of ground balls and keep it down. And I had good command of all my pitches and was getting ahead in the count on all of the batters." Despite getting hit on the pitching arm with a line drive in the fourth, Hepler remained perfect through that inning. When the sophomore departed due to soreness in the fifth, the scoresheet was amazing -- 11 ground ball outs and four strikeouts. Fitzgerald then came in and mopped up the host team in order in the sixth and seventh -- domination at its best. If not for a walk and an infield hit in the fifth, the 125 fans in attendance might have seen a perfect game. "Hepler was breezing," Seddon said. "His pitch count was low and there wasn't one fly ball in the entire game. I was happy for Hep, he has really improved." Three wins in a row -- Penn had not accomplished something like this in a while. Emotions and hopes were running high. Could the Quakers sweep to finish the year on a roll? Unfortunately for Penn, it didn't happen. Scoring during every inning, the Big Red cruised to a 15-run lead lead in a big 17-5 win. Cornell's Jordan Schaeffer had three hits, including a two-run blast in the first, as the home squad snuck away with one victory. Quakers freshman Mark Lacerenza (0-6, 5.92), who had looked strong at times as a starter, was lit up for nine runs in just over two innings. Despite the season-ending loss, the squad left Cornell with an extremely positive end to the 1999 season. "People look at our team and our record and they get the wrong impression," Seddon said. "We're not leaving the season with negative feeling because we stink. We know we underachieved. "We'll be a better team next year -- but we'll still have to see."

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