Engineers get 17 free trips, sweep Penn

The Quakers' pitchers had trouble finding their control all day until, ultimately, they lost control of an entire game.

The Penn baseball team (4-11 after Sunday's games) was rocked, 13-4, in the first game of a Murphy Field doubleheader on Saturday against Lehigh (12-6), before blowing a lead and falling to the Mountain Hawks in the nightcap, 6-3.

Walks were the story of the day, as no one on the Red and Blue pitching staff demonstrated any kind of command on a cold, blustery day on the shores of the Schuylkill.

Penn pitchers have struggled throughout the spring, but Saturday's performance highlighted a new problem.

"It hasn't been the control so much as that our pitchers have been hit," Penn coach Bob Seddon said. "But today it was definitely a control thing."

It was clear early on that the Quakers' starting pitcher in the opener, junior Ben Krantz, did not have his best stuff. He walked four men in the first inning, leading to two Lehigh runs.

Krantz finished the afternoon having not been hit all that hard, yet he surrendered seven walks and six runs in 3 1/3 innings.

Penn left-hander Paul Grumet was effective in the fourth inning following Krantz's departure, but ran into trouble of his own in the fifth.

With Lehigh already ahead, 5-2, Grumet walked the bases loaded, beginning with the Mountain Hawks' ninth-place batter, Anthony Piccola. Third baseman Jesse Novalis drove in Piccola with a ground ball that Penn shortstop Steve Glass was unable to handle.

Then, with the bases still loaded, Lehigh left fielder Jeff Pietrak, a Philadelphia native, drilled a grand slam over the left-center field wall to put the game out of reach.

Pietrak, who was only one of two Mountain Hawks to not draw a walk in game one, found more productive ways to spend his at-bats.

He finished 4 for 5 with a home run and seven RBIs.

Penn senior pitcher Mark Lacerenza fared better at the start of the second contest. The lefty blanked Lehigh through the first three innings and headed to the sixth up one, 3-2.

But Lacerenza, after escaping the potential danger of walking five men through four innings, found that his lack of precision would eventually cost him.

He opened the sixth by giving the first three batters free passes before he was relieved by freshman Brian Winings.

Winings, who had caught the first game, promptly walked the first two men he saw to force home a pair of runs that gave the Mountain Hawks a lead they would not relinquish.

"I think the team in general was a little lackadaisical," Lacerenza said. "As a pitching staff, we need to throw more strikes. If you do that, you keep the team in the game longer and keep the defense alive."

"It wasn't the cold, it wasn't the fatigue," he said of his sixth inning difficulties. "I just have to throw strikes and there's really no room for excuses right now. I just have to do it."

Seddon and assistant coach Bill Wagner were clearly upset with the Quakers' effort on Saturday, manifested by a post-game harangue likely audible in the farthest reaches of the ballpark.

"We kind of gave the [second] game away with our pitchers, but we also only had four hits," said Seddon, emphasizing that not just one phase of the game was solely responsible for the nightmarish day.

"But our pitching fell apart. We walked five or six straight hitters, and that just can't happen."

One bright spot for the Quakers was junior second baseman Nick Italiano, who hit for the first time in the three-spot in the batting order. Formerly a leadoff hitter, the co-captain went 4 for 6 in the doubleheader.

In the bottom of the first inning of the first game, Italiano drove a fastball away to the opposite field for his first career home run. The two-run blast tied the game after Lehigh had scored twice in the top half of the inning.

"I knew the wind was blowing that way. The wind took it, and I thought it was going to go over the left-fielder's head for a double," Italiano said. "I was a little surprised, but I'll take it."

In today's games, the Quakers split with Hartford, winning, 3-2, before dropping a 9-3 contest.

Penn next plays on Wednesday in the Liberty Bell Classic at Veterans Stadium at 7 p.m. against St. Joseph's.

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