An afternoon to forget

At the outset, things looked promising for the Penn baseball team in yesterday's game against Philadelphia Diamond Five opponent Saint Joseph's.

But a phenomenal fourth inning that lasted 16 at-bats for St. Joe's proved to be the turning point of a game that the Hawks would go on to win by a considerable margin, 20-9.

The Quakers (6-14) were the first to get on the scoreboard, tallying three unanswered runs in the first three innings.

Sophomore outfielder Kyle Armeny started things off for Penn in the first inning with a two-run single to right-center that put the Quakers' first runs on the board.

Sophomore Scott Graham followed in the second with a single that advanced Michael Gatti, who eventually scored Penn's third run on an error by St. Joe's shortstop Chris Cashman.

But the Quakers' troubles started in the Hawks' first at-bat of the fourth inning, when junior pitcher Kenny Yoo walked the first batter, hit the second and walked the third.

This left the bases loaded for St. Joe's catcher Dustin Onulak, who reached first on an error, while Mike Gentile crossed the plate to score the first of the Hawks' 12 runs in the fourth.

It was the second time this season that the Quakers gave up a 12-run inning, the first being against South Florida on Penn's trip to the Sunshine state.

Coincidentally, the Bulls had their big inning in the fourth as well.

Yoo continued to struggle, giving up five runs, four of them earned.

In the end, junior Joe Thornton finally got Penn out of the nightmare inning after the Hawks (10-18) scored seven more runs, three of them unearned.

Wes Donehower pitched the majority of the game for the Quakers, allowing six runs on five hits.

"We've definitely pitched better in the past," senior pitcher Brian Cirri said. "We just really didn't execute on our pitches and left the ball up in the zone. They took advantage of our mistakes."

And the mistakes committed on both sides were plentiful.

Penn had trouble making routine plays in the field, struggling to contain the St. Joe's offense. The Quakers committed seven costly errors.

"No team can win a game with seven errors, and that's the bottom line," Graham said. "We have to sharpen up in the infield and mentally just make sure we know what we're doing before every play, and I think that will help us out."

The Hawks were not without faults in the field however, committing a total of four errors of their own.

Catcher Josh Corn led the offensive effort for the Quakers, turning in a 2-for-3 performance, with two runs scored and two RBIs.

Graham further bolstered the offense, going 3-for-4 with two RBIs.

"We were pretty aggressive on the bases and hit well," Graham said. "There's still room for improvements, but overall, I think we did a pretty good job."

And although Penn totaled 12 hits by the end of the game, the damage of the fourth was too great to overcome.

But ultimately, the game was lost in the field.

Of the Hawks' 20 runs scored, only 11 were earned. The sporadic team made the most of the Quakers' miscues, converting each error into more runs scored.

In its last four games -- all losses -- Penn has committed a total of 19 errors, an obstacle that would be difficult for any team to overcome.

Looking ahead to the weekend, assistant coach Ryan Wheeler sees much room for improvement before the team resumes its Ivy League schedule with a doubleheader against Brown on Saturday.

"We've just been giving the other team too many opportunities to beat us," Wheeler said. "We have to pitch better; we have to swing better; and we have to play better defense. We have to do a lot of little things a lot better in order to improve."

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