Reliever Michael Gibbons' final appearance on the Meiklejohn Stadium mound may not have played out as he had imagined.
In two innings, the senior allowed three runs off of four hits, including Rider first baseman Gene Crimoli's two-run homer in the top of the eighth.
Crimoli's late home run lifted the his team to a 9-8 lead en route to the Broncs' 10-8 victory yesterday afternoon.
"It was absolutely disappointing when I gave up the home run to win the game," Gibbons said. "I was disappointed, very disappointed -- especially in myself. But the team fought. That's what we do: We fight, we don't give up."
Despite the senior's disappointment, his performance explains only three of the 10 runs scored by Rider (14-21, 8-4 MAAC). Penn's troubles started long before Gibbons took the mound yesterday, and continued afterwards.
"We just don't get a stop," Penn coach John Cole said. "Every time we get runs, we give them back. That's draining on the offense, and that takes its toll. We can't stop people, and that has killed us this year."
In their final home appearance of the year, the Quakers (10-25, 5-11 Ivy) jumped out to a 3-1 lead in the bottom of the third. Rider managed to catch the Red and Blue, though.
Rider was down to its final out in the fourth, but the road team knocked a single, then two doubles and another single to score four runs and take the lead off of Penn starting pitcher Doug Brown.
But after the Broncs pulled ahead 6-3, Penn reversed the scored two in the sixth and three more in the seventh to take an 8-6 lead headed into the bottom of the seventh.
"There are key points in the ballgame when things go one way or the other -- sometimes we catch a break and come out on top," senior Ken-Ichi Hino said. "But we can't really dwell on that."
The game's key points indicated an impending Rider victory. With four more runs, including the three off of Gibbons and another off sophomore Bret Wallace in the ninth, Rider finally shut down the struggling Quakers to pick up the win.
This season has "been tough," Cole said. "But the kids have fought and battled and the effort has been there. We just haven't executed. But they didn't quit -- they fought hard, and I'm very pleased with their effort."
In the final home game of his first season as Penn's head coach, Cole decided to switch up his starters and relievers in hopes of creating a new and successful pitching dynamic. Junior Doug Brown, usually a reliever, pitched the first four innings for the Quakers. And it was Wallace, a starter in the past, who pitched in relief for the final inning.
"We reversed it," Cole said. We tried to start our closer to get him some innings, and he did okay ... so we just reversed everything today."
The combination may not have proven effective this season, but that doesn't rule it out for next year and the two doubleheaders this weekend at Princeton which will finish off the season.
For seniors Brian Cirri, Sean Abate, Joe Wilamowski, Hino and Gibbons, though, yesterday's disappointment represents just one piece of a much larger puzzle.
"It's surprising how quick it has gone," Hino said. "Obviously, we would have liked to have gone out on a winning note, but I think we battled our hearts out. We left it all on the field."
Though his last moments may not be his proudest, Gibbons will travel to Princeton this weekend to wrap up his four-year baseball career with the Quakers.
"Truth be told, I told some other seniors: I can't believe I played four years here. It really flies by," he said. "I'm going to miss baseball, going to miss playing here."
PENN 0 0 3 0 0 2 3 0 0 -- 8 11 3Rider 0 0 1 4 0 1 1 2 1 -- 10 10 3
