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This time, the Penn baseball team came out on the wrong end of a one-run decision. Just one day after holding on for a 4-3 victory over La Salle, the Quakers lost to St. Joseph's yesterday, 6-5. "They pitched some decent guys today," Penn senior catcher Jeff Gregorio said. "We faced some really decent pitching, so [the loss] wasn't because we played that badly." The Quakers (13-7) certainly didn't start out badly, as starter Dan Fitzgerald pitched three scoreless innings before the Quakers opened the scoring in the top of the fourth. The Red and Blue grabbed an early 3-0 lead on right fielder Chris May's run-scoring single and center fielder Andrew McCreery's two-run triple. That triple notwithstanding, small ball was the order of the day. "Neither team really crushed the ball," said second baseman Nick Italiano, who scored on May's single. "There was a lot of bunting and moving runners over." The Hawks (7-13-1) moved their share of runners in the bottom of the fourth, wiping out the Red and Blue lead by scoring four runs of their own. Fitzgerald was replaced on the mound by freshman Mark Souders, who had a pretty rough time in his college debut. Souders gave up five runs -- four earned -- five hits and four walks in the first 1 2/3 innings of his college career, but it wasn't as though he got shelled. "Our pitchers threw really well today," Gregorio said. "Things could've gone a lot better for [Souders] if only he gets a couple breaks." In St. Joe's big four-run inning, the Hawks' batters got just two infield hits and a bloop single off Souders, who was also hurt by an error and a close play at the plate. With one run in and St. Joe's left fielder Justin Godusky on third, Hawks first baseman Tim Gunn hit a deep fly ball to Penn's Andrew McCreery. The center fielder caught the ball and heaved it on target, toward home plate. "The ball wound up hitting a rock right in front of me and bouncing over my head," Gregorio said. "McCreery made a great throw, but the field was awful, and we just got a bad break." The Hawks went on to score two more in the inning before Souders struck out third baseman Tom Gibson looking. "I thought [Souders] threw really well," Italiano said. "He was hurt by a couple of infield hits and a couple of bloops." The Quakers and Hawks traded single runs in the fifth inning, before the Red and Blue tied it up again in the top of the sixth when first baseman Ron Rolph's ground out to first allowed May to score. The score remained knotted at five until the bottom of the eighth inning, when the Hawks eked out a single run against Quakers relievers Mark Lacerenza and Russ Brocato. Lacerenza replaced Souders with two outs in the bottom of the fifth and pitched 2 1/3 innings of scoreless ball before walking St. Joe's shortstop Pace Bradshaw. Bradshaw advanced to second on a Lacerenza wild pitch before he was replaced by freshman Russ Brocato. Brocato didn't allow a run-scoring hit, but a sacrifice bunt moved Bradshaw to second and a fly ball sent him home, providing the Hawks with their 6-5 win. "I think it was a pretty well-played game," Italiano said. "Also, St. Joe's pitched most of their weekend starters against us, because [their games] got cancelled last week." It was a tough loss, but it wasn't an Ivy League loss, and -- for the Quakers -- that's the most important thing. Midweek wins are nice, but they're really little more than tune ups for weekend action. "We played a better team today than we saw [on Tuesday]," Gregorio said. "It still would've been nice to get that win, but the weekend games are the only ones that matter right now." And this weekend, Penn has a pair of doubleheaders at Brown and Yale scheduled. "I think we have to pick up the intensity," Italiano said. "Over the next couple of days, I think we need to get the bats going a little bit more, like they were earlier in the season."

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