Baseball falls to Leopards in Easton slugfest

The Quakers lost at Lafayette by a familiar margin -just one run. Another day, another tough one-run defeat. After falling to Temple Tuesday afternoon at Veterans Stadium by the closest of margins -- 5-4 in 10 innings -- the Penn baseball team traveled to cold and windy Easton, Pa., yesterday to try and wash the bitter aftertaste of falling to the Owls out of its collective mouth. It didn't work out that way. With a 10-9 loss to Lafayette marked by shaky pitching and fundamentals, the Quakers fell to 8-9 on the season and are left to ponder the missed chances at victory that have defined their week. The Quakers jumped out to an early 3-1 lead on the strength of sophomore catcher Brian Fitzgerald's two-RBI single to right-center field in Penn's three-run second inning. It was a lead Penn would not hold for long. Lafayette shortstop Vince D'Angelis' single to right-center field in the bottom half of the inning scored right fielder Russ Giglio, cutting Penn's lead to a scant one run. After going two innings and giving up one earned run, Penn starting pitcher Greg Lee was lifted in the third to help set up this weekend's pitching slate for the Quakers. His replacement was Nick Barnhorst, who didn't last long. With one out, Barnhorst walked Lafayette designated hitter Niko Palos and third baseman Bob Osipower. After first baseman Matt Tambellini reached on a fielder's choice, knocking out Osipower at second base and advancing Palos to third. A passed ball charged to Fitzgerald scored Palos and sent Tambellini to second. This turn of events seemed to unnerve Barnhorst, who walked the next three batters, forcing home a run in the person of Tambellini. Barnhorst was lifted in favor of promising freshman Ben Otero, who got D'Angelis to end the inning by flying out to left with the bases loaded. While Lafayette missed a chance to break the game wide open, they would never trail again. "He was horrendous," Penn coach Bob Seddon said of Barnhorst. "Nick could not find the plate. It seems like when something goes wrong, we break down. In other words, first inning, first batter, line drive to third base, and it's not caught. Then we break down -- a walk or a hit. We're not strong when we have something negative go wrong?. After a goof, we have to be more focused." In the Leopards' next turn at bat, they would make the Quakers pay dearly for their mistakes. With two outs, Otero struck out Palos swinging, seemingly ending the inning. But Fitzgerald let the ball get away -- his second passed ball of the game -- and Palos was able to reach first base. Lafayette took advantage of its new lease on life. After Palos reached base, Osipower homered to right, driving himself and his teammate in. Not to be outdone, Tambellini immediately followed Osipower's blast with one of his own, a solo shot to center that gave the Leopards a 7-3 lead. The Quakers got two back in the top of the fifth when shortstop Glen Ambrosius' fielder's choice scored second baseman Nick Italiano. A wild pitch by Brendan McDonough later in the inning scored designated hitter James Mullen, who had reached base earlier on a fielder's choice of his own. In the sixth, the Quakers had a chance to score when Brian Fitzgerald stood on third with one out. But left fielder Jeremy McDowell ran into a tag on a ground ball by Italiano to initiate a double play that ended the inning before the run could score from third. "We did some stupid things that become highlighted when you've given up a lot of runs," Seddon said. "If you weren't giving up all those runs, you wouldn't really notice those little things. They hurt us." The Leopards put the game away in their half of the sixth. After Otero held Lafayette to one hit in the fifth, Dan Fitzgerald was brought on to pitch and was shaky, walking three batters and plunking one with a pitch. With two outs and runners on first and second, Jon Kline pinch hit for catcher Jason Carlough and squeezed a single through the left side, loading the bases. Giglio singled to left, scoring two and giving the Leopards a 9-5 lead. After walking the next batter to reload the bases, Fitzgerald hit D'Angelis, forcing in another run. While Fitzgerald got out of the bases-loaded jam by getting center fielder Tye Gonser to pop out to him, the damage had been done, and Lafayette had the runs they would eventually need to prevail. With right fielder Kevin McCabe's three-run homer in the top of the seventh, Penn cut the deficit to 10-8 and put themselves in an excellent position -- with Brian Burket and Ben Krantz holding Lafayette scoreless in relief in the seventh and eighth, Penn only needed to score two runs over the final two innings to pull even with the Leopards. In a slugfest such as yesterday's contest, this seemed to be an achievable feat. However, the runs Penn needed to avoid defeat never materialized. After the Quakers cut the Lafayette lead to 10-9 in the eighth inning, they looked to be poised to take the lead in the ninth. With darkness encroaching upon the field, pitcher Ross Butler walked McCabe and center fielder Andrew McCreery to start the final frame. But Brian Fitzgerald's bunt rocketed back to the box, and Butler was able to force out McCabe at third. Butler settled down and struck out first baseman Ron Rolph and left fielder Jeremy McDowell to end the game with the tying run in scoring position. "Even though they're scoring a lot of runs, they're not getting clutch hits," Seddon said. "You can't put it all on the pitchers, and the offense knows that. You can't [have] a man on second, one out in the eighth inning and don't get him in and man on second, no outs in the ninth inning and don't get him in when you try and tie a game. "We're out of sync. We're not making the plays we have to."

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