Baseball takes three of four from Red

Penn swept Saturday's doubleheader with Cornell and split Sunday's, but fell a game back in the Gehrig Division. While the fans of the Penn baseball team enjoyed the bliss of the official opening of the new stadium at Murphy Field this weekend, the Quakers themselves quietly went about the business of winning. With a doubleheader sweep of Cornell on Saturday afternoon at the Penn Baseball Stadium at Murphy Field and a split in the twin bill yesterday, Penn improved to 17-14 overall and 7-5 in the Ancient Eight. But while the Quakers were able to take three of four games from the Big Red to open their Lou Gehrig Division play in the Ivy League, they fell one game behind Princeton, which swept its two weekend doubleheaders with Columbia. However, with two doubleheaders at Old Nassau this coming Friday and Saturday, Penn is not concerned about the division standings -- yet. "We're in a position where we're pretty much in control of our own destiny," Penn hurler Mike Mattern said. "We're going to go there and play them four games. And if we walk out of there with three or four of them, then it's to our advantage. We just have to play well there. "The one game isn't really that much of a big deal. It'd be nice to be tied or ahead a game, but we're right in the middle of things right now." The highlight of the weekend was undoubtedly Mattern's gem in the opening game of Saturday's doubleheader. As a steady drizzle fell -- interrupted only by spurts of heavy rain -- Mattern mastered the Big Red, allowing no hits or runs through the first five innings of the seven-inning contest. But in the sixth, as dreams of a no-hitter danced through the heads of the 377 wet souls in attendance, Cornell pinch hitter Vince Santo punched an opposite-field single through the right side of the infield to end Mattern's bid. "I left the pitch up, and the kid hit it into the outfield," Mattern said. "It was my own fault." But Mattern did not allow another hit the rest of the way and the Quakers won, 4-0. "I was throwing the ball real well. It was probably the best I've felt all year," Mattern said. "[A no-hitter] would've been nice, but I don't think you can get disappointed." In the second game of the day, the Quakers jumped out to an early 4-1 lead as the rain subsided and never looked back, completing the sweep of the doubleheader, 6-2. While impressive freshman pitcher Ben Otero could not match Mattern's line from earlier in the day, he did receive the same decision -- a win -- and improved his record to 3-2. As he has been several times this season, Otero was solid, giving up only two runs on seven hits in seven innings of work. Cornell fell apart in the bottom of the third, allowing the Quakers to score all the runs they would need. With runners on second and third following an error, Cornell pitcher John Osgood served up a wild pitch as Penn center fielder Andrew McCreery was at the plate, allowing Glen Ambrosius to score and Jeff Gregorio to go to third. Gregorio then scored on McCreery's groundout to advance Penn's lead to 4-1. In yesterday's first game, the Quakers -- as they have many times this season -- were not able to hold their opponent in late innings. In the seventh and final frame, Cornell shortstop Mike Nemeth singled in pinch runner John Mills from second, putting the Big Red up 4-3. Cornell also added an insurance run in that inning, taking a 5-3 lead that the Quakers neither overcame nor dented in their last licks. The two-run seventh spoiled what had been an otherwise splendid outing for Penn pitcher Mark Lacerenza, who fell to 1-4. "It seems that Mark is kind of snakebit in games like that," Mattern said. "We don't really give him run support like some of the other pitchers get. He's had some tough losses like that." In the nightcap, the Penn bats exploded late to provide the Quakers with a 10-2 blowout victory and an exclamation point on a successful weekend. The Big Red pushed a run across the board in the top of the first, as Erik Rico's one-out single drove in center fielder Justin Irizarry. The 1-0 score held up until the fourth, when the Quakers tallied a run of their own. In the bottom of the sixth, Penn scored seven runs, more than was needed to put Cornell away. The inning featured RBI doubles off the bats of Kevin McCabe and Ambrosius. Catcher Ralph Vasami chimed in with a two-RBI single.