Snow job! Baseball goes 1-3 on road

Penn split a doubleheader with Dartmouth and fought hard with Harvard, but lost both games in Boston yesterday. The Penn baseball team opened up its New England road trip successfully, winning the first of four games at Dartmouth and Harvard. Unfortunately for the Quakers, that was as good as it got. The Red and Blue (13-13, 4-4 Ivy) finished 1-3 on their road trip, losing the nightcap at Dartmouth on Saturday after winning the opener. They then dropped both contests at Harvard yesterday after being forced to stay an extra night in Boston -- the doubleheader between Penn and the Crimson scheduled for Sunday was moved back one day because of the freak snowstorm that descended upon the Northeast. With the 1-3 weekend, Penn fell into a three-way tie for first place in the Lou Gehrig Division of the Ivy League with Princeton and Cornell, which both went 3-1 this weekend. Both the Tigers and the Big Red faced the easier foes of the Red Rolfe Division -- Yale and Brown. Columbia, which had been tied with the Quakers in the standings before this weekend, was swept by Harvard and Dartmouth and fell a game behind the pack with a 3-5 Ivy record. On Saturday, Penn raced out to a 2-0 lead over Dartmouth starter James Kelly and never looked back. The closest the Big Green would come was 3-1 in the third inning, when they scored their only run off of Penn hurler Mike Mattern -- a solo home run off of the bat of Dartmouth shortstop Matt Klentak. Mattern was dominating in his first win of the year, going the distance in the seven-inning game, giving up one run on five hits and striking out eight Dartmouth batters. He walked just one Big Green player. The Quakers, who put a run across the plate in the top of the fourth to take a 4-1 lead, faced a Big Green scoring threat in the bottom of the fifth when Dartmouth put men on first and second with two out. But first baseman Ron Rolph picked up a smash grounder off the bat of Dartmouth second baseman Joe Rockers, not only ending the inning but also -- with Mattern on the mound -- effectively ending the Big Green's chances for a victory in the first game. "Mike was outstanding," Penn coach Bob Seddon said of his victorious pitcher. "It was clearly his best performance of the season." In the nightcap, Dartmouth ace Connor Brooks showed the Quakers why he has been one of the Ivy League's best pitchers for the last four years. In his first-ever appearance against the Red and Blue -- an odd happenstance, considering the fact that Brooks is a senior -- the talented righty fanned 13 batters en route to a nine-inning complete game victory. Penn gave itself no chance against Brooks, as freshman Ben Krantz, who took the loss, surrendered eight runs on 11 hits in 4 2/3 innings. The Quakers were already behind 9-0 by the time they managed to get to Brooks in the eighth inning. Right fielder Kevin McCabe drove in one run with an RBI single before third baseman Oliver Hahl stole home, cutting the Big Green lead to 9-2. But against Brooks in the late innings, there was no realistic chance for any kind of Penn comeback, and Penn eventually fell by the score of 10-2. With a win and a loss in the books, the Quakers traveled to Boston and expected to take on the three-time defending Ivy champion Crimson on Sunday afternoon in a twin bill. But one day after Mother Nature had laid waste to these best laid plans of the Quakers, the Crimson laid waste to the Quakers themselves, leaving them with nothing to show for their impromptu overnight stay in the city of beans and Fenway Park. While the Quakers had excellent chances to win both games, they came closest in the second game of the twin bill, coming within three outs in the ninth and two in the 11th of beating Harvard for the first time in nine tries. But Penn's relief pitching abandoned it. With a 5-4 lead going into the ninth, freshman Andrew McCreery, who had replaced fellow freshman and starter Ben Otero, was brought in to try and seal the win. But he quickly blew the save, as the first batter he faced, right fielder John Franey, blasted an opposite field homer to tie the game at five. McCreery, who was pegged with the loss, pitched a scoreless 10th before loading the bases in the 11th. Paul Grumet was then given the ball and the unenviable task of getting the Quakers out of the mess. The first batter Grumet faced, pinch-hitter Joe Llanes, laced a two-RBI single to win the game and complete the Harvard sweep of the doubleheader. The Quakers had taken the lead in the top of the inning thanks to back-to-back RBI singles by shortstop Glen Ambrosius and catcher Jeff Gregorio. The loss ruined a magnificent effort by Otero, who had another strong start after his complete game against Brown two weeks ago. "Otero was extremely strong," Penn pitching coach Bill Wagner said. "But our relief pitching did not seal the deal." In the first game, Penn held a 2-0 lead going into the fifth inning when pinch-hitter Joe Hopps' three-run double put the Crimson up for good. They would add one more in the inning to take a 4-2 lead, which is the way the game ended. Harvard sophomore Ben Crockett, who was credited with the complete-game victory, was able to shut the Quakers down after his teammates gave him a two-run lead. "We played well, we just didn't hold the leads," Seddon said. "We just didn't get it done."