Wild finish for Baseball to open new stadium

The Quakers scored six runs in the eighth and final inning to clinch a comeback victory. Murphy Field's opening day as the Penn baseball team's new ballpark turned out to be a three-hour-long doozy yesterday that in the end left the visiting St. Joseph's players in stunned disbelief and in possession of a 13-12 loss. Through a combination of mental errors on defense and poor decision making on offense, the Hawks (5-15) squandered a 12-7 lead that they held in the top of the seventh inning and found themselves tied, 12-12, with the rallying Quakers (6-5) late in the eighth. And with darkness rapidly descending upon the multi-million-dollar Murphy Field facility -- which has yet to have lights installed -- Penn shortstop Glen Ambrosius completed the Red and Blue's game-winning comeback before the game was called for poor visibility. The Penn tri-captain, who had been hitless in the game, stepped to the plate in the bottom of the eighth with one out and the bases loaded after seven of the last eight Quakers' batters had gotten aboard. Hawks' closer Mike Miller greeted Ambrosius with a slew of curveballs looping through the darkening batter's box, but he sealed his own fate by following with a fastball straight down the middle. "The ball was kind of hard to see," Ambrosius said. "I didn't pick it up until the end, and I just sort of threw my hands in and threw the bat at it." The senior shortstop's near-blind hit looped into shallow left field and brought home Penn's Oliver Hahl with what was apparently just the go-ahead run. But once Hahl touched the plate, the umpire signaled the end of the game, and the Quakers rushed the field to celebrate a memorable 13-12 victory to open their new park. The Hawks were shocked at the last-minute turn of the game. "It's a hard thing to swallow to see guys touching the bases with nobody out, and we're trying our damnedest to get guys out," St. Joe's catcher Rob Reed said. The most bitter pill for Reed and the Hawks came early in the bottom of the eighth from Penn's Anthony Napolitano. With two men on base after a walk and an error, Napolitano sent an 0-2 pitch from Hawks' reliever Kevin Kirkby just over the center field wall for a three-run homer that put Penn back within striking distance at 12-10. The shot was hit so straight toward the wall that neither Napolitano nor his teammates were sure whether it had flown over the yellow scoring line to go yard. "I actually didn't think it was going to get out, so I put my head down [and ran for first base]," Napolitano said. "But then I heard some hootin' and the umpire gave the finger and I just settled into my trot." Napolitano's blast prompted Hawks coach Jim Ertel to call on Miller, but the momentum had already changed in the Quakers' favor. Miller came out to walk two of the first three batters he faced, then give up an RBI double to Hahl to bring Penn within one. By the time Ambrosius came to bat, another Quaker had been walked home to tie the game. The six-run final inning was quite a change for the Quakers, who had been giving much more than they had received throughout most of the game. Mike Mattern, Penn's ace, gave up a disappointing nine runs on 10 hits -- including the first home run in the new stadium to St. Joe's Tim Gunn -- in five innings pitched. Mattern's worst inning was his last, when the Hawks lit him up for five runs on four hits. "I just didn't have it today," Mattern said. "They started timing my pitches a little better later in the game and they hit a couple balls hard and found holes." By the time Penn reliever Brian Burket took up Mattern's cause to start the sixth inning, the Quakers faced a seemingly insurmountable 9-4 deficit. Burket, though, came up big for the Red and Blue, striking out the first batter he faced and retiring the side in order. The Quakers answered Burket's effort with a three-run sixth inning to bring Penn within two. But the Hawks struck back in the top of the seventh when Burket faltered, giving away a solo home run to Reed and letting up two more runs before stepping off the mound. After Penn went scoreless in the bottom of the seventh, Quakers coach Bob Seddon called Benjamin Krantz in to hold the Hawks down as the sun began to set. Krantz managed to keep the score at 12-7 by forcing St. Joe's into a three-up, three-down top of the eighth, and the Penn offense rewarded the freshman his first collegiate win with its late rally. Despite the disappointing showing, there was a bright spot in Mattern's day. Penn's ace had been battling the flu for three days but made sure to recover in time to get the start for yesterday's first game in Murphy Field. "I didn't want to miss this first game," Mattern said. And perhaps as a good omen for the park, the first pitch ever thrown in it was a strike.

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