Jarron Smith stepped to the plate as a pinch-hitter in the bottom of the 10th inning. The game winning run was standing 90 feet away at third base.
The epitome of an inexperienced player, the freshman from Carrollton, Tex., had only one hit in six career at-bats.
With the pressure on, Smith delivered an infield single which clinched Penn's 3-2 victory over Lafayette in the first round of the Liberty Bell Classic. The win was the third in a row for the Quakers (3-9) and sets up a semifinal showdown against Saint Joseph's.
Coming up to the plate in such an important situation, Smith admitted to feeling some jitters. The precocious freshman also slightly deviated from the gameplan.
"I didn't do what I was supposed to do because I was supposed to squeeze. But I got a hit," Smith said.
Pinch-runner Alex Nwaka was running on the pitch and coach Bob Seddon instructed Smith to bunt the ball. Instead, Smith singled up the middle to end the game.
Though the play did not go as planned, all was forgiven as the Quakers were excited to move on in the tournament.
"Today's game, even though it was a mid-week game, it meant a lot because if you lost, you lose two games on your schedule," third baseman Kyle Armeny said. "We definitely wanted to win."
In the end, the aggressive move paid off for the Red and Blue, and Seddon promised to continue to take advantage of Penn's speed.
"We're going to be a team that will hit-and-run a lot," he said. "If they throw us out, whatever. But that's what we want to do."
Penn's aggressive baserunning did not pay off early, as Armeny was thrown out at home in the third inning trying to score from second on a single.
In the fourth, Sean Abate was tagged out at home attempting to score after Bryan Graves got caught in a rundown between first and second.
The risks were calculated, however, as Penn had already staked a 2-0 advantage on a double by Armeny.
The Quakers squandered the lead in the sixth, when consecutive errors by Armeny allowed the Leopards to score two runs with two outs. However, Penn's pitchers stepped up and retired the final 13 batters.
The game was nip-and-tuck until Armeny led off the 10th, looking to make up for his previous miscues.
Armeny worked a walk on a full count which turned into the winning run on Smith's single.
"I just wanted to start it off," Armeny said. "I didn't want to do too much."
Though Seddon was happy with his team's hitting, he also zeroed in on the efforts of the pitching corps.
Freshmen Andy Console, Nick Francona and Steven Schwartz each worked two innings and gave up no earned runs.
Lafayette runners got on base in each of the first six frames, but the Penn hurlers buckled down to keep the Quakers in the game. Most impressively, over the course of the 10 innings, they did not issue a single walk.
"Our pitching is fine," Seddon said. "We had three freshmen that pitched real well."
In the late innings, it was senior Remington Chin who took over, working three perfect innings for his first win of the season. In addition, Chin struck out two and made a sensational catch, deflecting a comebacker off of his glove then snagging the ball with his bare hand.
"He's coming on," Seddon said of Chin. "He's pitching good."
In the end, a solid all-around performance by the Quakers left the team -- and Seddon -- excited for the upcoming Ivy League schedule.
"I thought we could have a little run here," Seddon said. "Lafayette's a nice team. That's a good win."
