Baseball wins 3 to start Ivies

Penn swept Yale and split games with Brown to open Ivy League play. Despite the Penn baseball team's shaky play in two losses against Temple and Lafayette last week, Penn coach Bob Seddon believed that his Quakers would rise to the level of play that Ivy competition demanded of them. He was right. The Quakers (11-10, 3-1 Ivy) kicked off their conference schedule this weekend with a bang, winning three of their four games in two doubleheaders against Ivy foes Yale and Brown. The Red and Blue find themselves tied with Columbia at the top of the Lou Gehrig division. Penn's victories were marked by strong pitching, something that had eluded them of late. All four of the Quakers' weekend starters made it to at least the sixth inning, and Mike Mattern, in his six-inning stint in Brown's 4-3 triumph yesterday, was the only one of the four to give up more than three earned runs. Most impressive was freshman Ben Otero's pitching line. Starting instead of fellow freshman Andrew McCreery, who was flu-ridden, Otero gave up two earned runs on two hits in a nine-inning complete game victory in the second game of the doubleheader with Brown yesterday. "I'm not surprised Otero pitched well, but to go nine innings, I wouldn't have expected that," Seddon said. "I would've thought he would've needed some help because he hasn't gone that far in a game this year." Otero handcuffed the Bears, giving up one run in the third that put Brown on the scoreboard first and one run in the eighth that cut the Penn lead to 9-2 -- the eventual final score. While revenge might be a dish best served cold, Otero's victory in the nightcap redressed the fresh wounds suffered by the Quakers in the first game of the doubleheader with the Bears. In that first game, Mattern went to the mound in the seventh and final inning with a 3-1 lead. But Mattern gave up three consecutive singles, allowing the Bears to cut Penn's lead to 3-2. Freshman Paul Grumet was brought on to replace Mattern and was given the unenviable task of extinguishing Brown's threat. After striking out Brown second baseman Dan Spring, Grumet was tagged by third baseman Rick Lynn for a single that dribbled its way through the right side of the infield, tying the score at three. Third baseman Glen Ambrosius, who had moved from shortstop to replace the injured Zack Hanan, committed an error and allowed Brown catcher Greg Metzger to score the go-ahead and eventual winning run. Mattern was tagged with the loss and fell to 0-2 on the season. "He pitched a good game," Seddon said. "It was unfortunate." The Quakers were anything but unfortunate on Saturday, as they beat up on the Elis to open their weekend with a doubleheader sweep. In the first game, Penn was able to come back from a three-run deficit in the fifth and sixth innings and win, 5-3. Mark Lacerenza went the distance for a seven-inning complete game victory. Yale pitcher Matt McCarthy did not surrender a hit until that fifth inning, when he was rocked by catcher Jeff Gregorio's solo homer to dead center. Gregorio then tied the game in the sixth when his bases-loaded single off reliever Doug Feller scored two. Ambrosius then stole third and scored on Yale catcher Darren Beasley's throwing error, giving Penn a lead it would hold for good. Right fielder Chris May, back from a groin injury, singled to drive in Gregorio and give the Quakers an insurance run. In the second game, Yale starting pitcher Sudha Reddy was chased out after 2 2/3 innings after giving up six runs -- three earned -- and Penn cruised to a 9-1 win. In his first collegiate start, freshman Benjamin Krantz went seven innings and gave up only one unearned run on two hits, six walks and nine strikeouts. Fellow freshman Nick Italiano contributed with three hits and two RBI. "It's a long season, it's a long 20 games, and we've only played four," Seddon said of the still-youthful Ivy season. "But it's nice to know you got off to a good start."

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