Baseball wins five of 10 on opening road trip to Florida

In the land of oranges and senior citizens, another season began for the Penn baseball team last week. The Quakers kicked off their 2000 campaign with five wins and five losses on their Florida road trip over spring break. The Quakers' .500 record after their first 10 games constitutes a marked and encouraging improvement over last year, when they played their first nine games in California and finished 2-8 in their first 10. But Penn coach Bob Seddon is quick to point out that last year's early season schedule was much tougher than this year's. "This schedule, there were some tough teams, but it doesn't compare with last year's schedule," he said. "However, this is a much better team than last year's team. This team really has a future." The journey to that future began on March 10, when the Quakers opened the season against Florida Tech in Melbourne. Though the Quakers pounded out 11 hits -- three of them off the bat of senior catcher Jeff Gregorio, including a two-run triple in the seventh inning that put Penn ahead 8-4 -- their pitching and defense eventually abandoned them. The Quakers, who issued nine walks in the game, wilted in the eighth inning as freshman relief pitcher Ben Otero and fellow fireman Dan Fitzgerald -- who was hit with the loss -- walked four Panthers and hit two batters in the process of giving up six runs on the way to a 10-8 loss. "We let that game get away, mainly on pitchers who couldn't throw the ball over the plate," Seddon said. "Defensively, we had a good trip. We had a few errors in the first game. That didn't do us in. It was the wildness of our pitchers." The Quakers gained revenge against Florida Tech the next day as they outslugged the Panthers, 17-15. Freshman John McCreery and shortstop Glen Ambrosius, a senior tri-captain, hit homeruns in a nine-run fourth that erased a 7-0 deficit for the Quakers. Penn pitcher Matt Hepler left the game in the bottom of the inning after surrendering four runs without giving up a hit, but the Quakers went ahead for good in the next frame with seven runs -- including a triple off the bat of McCreery. On March 12, Penn traveled to Daytona and split a doubleheader, trouncing Northern Illinois, which went 4-51 in 1999, while falling to Northern Iowa -- the Quakers' best opponent on the trip -- in the day's second game, 5-3. In the first game, Ambrosius -- who is hitting .341 in 44 at-bats with a .500 slugging percentage -- launched a three-run homer in the first inning, and freshman Kevin Wells shut the door on Northern Illinois, giving up one run on one hit in 3 2/3 innings after relieving McCreery, who had given up four runs in 5 1/3 innings. Penn fell to 2-2 in the nightcap, as Northern Iowa's Brady Weber stroked an RBI single to break a 2-2 tie and put the Panthers on top for good. In the ninth, the Quakers threatened to tie the score when they had men on second and third with two outs. But left fielder Jim Mullen grounded hard to short, ending the game. The next night, Penn barely escaped with a win over Cortland State, 9-8. Junior Chris May tallied a triple and a homerun, the latter occurring in a fifth inning that saw the Quakers jump out to an 8-3 lead. Otero gave the Quakers a quality start, going six innings and giving up two earned runs. However, it took freshman Paul Grumet to shut down the surging Cortland State squad in the ninth to save the game for the Red and Blue. "He's got great potential," Seddon said of Otero. The Quakers split another doubleheader on March 14, as they fell to Tiffin in the first game, 8-6, before defeating Northern Illinois, 8-4, for the second time. In the latter game, sophomore Greg Lee was impressive in his first collegiate start, striking out 12 and giving up three runs in eight innings of work. "Greg Lee is a very, very pleasant addition," Seddon said. "He has emerged into a probable starting position. However, that was only one game. We'll see [him in his] next game." In Winter Park the next night, Penn fell to Rollins, 13-8, to fall to 4-4. Penn fell behind early, but cut a six-run deficit to one run before Rollins pinch hitter Ryan Park put the game away with a grand slam homerun in the bottom of the seventh. Sophomore catcher Brian Fitzgerald's solo homerun to left-center field in the top of the ninth lifted the Quakers to a 9-8 victory over Eckerd in St. Petersburg on March 16. But Penn fell back to .500 two days later, blowing a 7-5 lead in the ninth to Army in Tampa. Michael Cooper beat the Quakers with a one-out bases-loaded single in the ninth off of Otero, who suffered the loss after his strong showing against Cortland State. "We should have won another two games on the trip," Seddon said. "We didn't pitch. We have to pitch better to win in our league. We didn't hold opposing runners on well, and opponents stole on us far too frequently Those are the things we have to work on." However, this does not mean Seddon isn't happy with his team's performance. "Any time you come back even from Florida or any spring trip, you pretty much feel pretty good about that," he said. Seddon added that he was heartened by the Quakers' offensive production on the trip, as they averaged 8.5 runs per game. Penn will open its home season on Thursday, when it hosts St. Joseph's in the first game ever at the new stadium at Murphy Field.

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