The Quakers have not won at the Liberty Bell Tournament since 1992. Penn faces Temple at the Vet today. In his three years of playing in the annual Liberty Bell Tournament, Kevin McCabe has never advanced with the Penn baseball team beyond the first round of the competition. Today, however, the senior outfielder feels that things will change for the better when the Quakers (8-7) kick off this year's installment of the single-elimination tournament against Temple (5-11-2) at 3 p.m. in Veteran's Stadium. "This is really a game that I want to win, and everyone on the team wants to win," McCabe said. "Not that we don't play every game to win, but there's an added incentive for the seniors in playing this game." The extra motivation to win this year is understandable in the Quakers seniors, who have literally seen the long and the short of baseball during their previous experience in the tournament. In their freshman year, Penn lost to La Salle 8-7 on a sacrifice fly after going a tiring 16 innings with the Explorers. That 5 1/2 hour marathon with La Salle was followed in McCabe's sophomore year with a 15-6, rain-shortened drubbing from Villanova that was called in the sixth inning. Last year, the Red and Blue again fell to the Wildcats, 11-10, despite a nine-run rally over the sixth and seventh innings that gave the Quakers a temporary 10-9 lead. These three losses in a row aren't unique for Penn. In fact, the Quakers have gone winless in the tournament since the Liberty Bell's inaugural year of 1992, when they made it into the second round. "We haven't won at the Vet in a while in this tournament," Penn coach Bob Seddon said. "It would be nice to win after getting knocked out right away in the last few years." Giving the Quakers hope for a turnaround this year is their depth in almost every position on the field. After 15 games, Seddon has had ample time to test and compare his young crop of freshmen and sophomores with his veteran players. The coach, who has spent 30 years at the helm, said he has been pleased with the results. "Nobody's better than anybody else," he said of his roster. "All these guys are going to intermingle all the time. I don't want a guy on the bench not getting his swings, because he's just as good as the guy who's out there [playing on the field]. I've told [the players] that, and there's no doubt about it." The one weak spot that Seddon sees is in his pitching staff. Four freshmen hurlers are leading the team in earned run average, topped by Paul Grumet's 1.50 ERA after six innings of relief pitching. Veteran pitchers Mark Lacerenza, Mike Mattern and Matt Hepler -- all preseason picks for the starting pitching rotation by Seddon -- can claim only the fifth, eighth and 11th best ERAs on the team, respectively. "We can't have failure with three starting pitchers who we counted on from last year," Seddon said. "That can't happen -- if it does, we're going to have a tough time. Hopefully, that gets straightened out, because you can't depend on freshmen carrying you." A chance for Penn's veteran hurlers to redeem themselves will come this afternoon when Mattern, a sophomore who was the pitching staff's statistical leader last year, makes his fourth start of the season for the Quakers. Mattern will try to better his 9.00 ERA against a Temple team that has a mediocre .264 batting average in 18 games played. Slated for relief is Hepler, a junior, and the probable closer in the nine-inning game will be junior Nick Barnhorst. The winner of the Penn-Temple game will face the winner of the La Salle-St. Joseph's matchup. If the Quakers get past the Owls and St. Joe's tops the Explorers, it will mark the teams' second meeting of the year. In Penn's home opener on March 23, the Quakers notched a 13-12, come-from-behind victory under virtual darkness against the Hawks to christen the new stadium at Murphy Field.
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