In four straight games before yesterday, Penn's relievers had conceded nine runs in 10 and two-thirds innings.
So Quakers coach John Cole was probably not a pillar of confidence as he watched his starting pitcher concede a walk, a single, and a three-run homer to the first three Saint Joseph's hitters he faced yesterday.
When Mike Marg was pulled in the second inning, he left a runner on first, a 3-1 deficit and more than a few anxious faces in the Penn dugout.
"Going down immediately 3-0 in the first inning . just kind of gets guys a little down," reliever Doug Brown admitted.
This time, though, the Quakers got a monumental boost from their relievers. It started with Marg's departure and continued right up to the last out of the ninth.
Eight-plus innings, seven hits, six strikeouts and three walks. And most impressively, no earned runs.
"We did a nice job in the middle," Cole said, referring to a stretch in which Penn conceded no runs but scored five. "It was almost a little test there, coming off a sour weekend."
That sour weekend saw Penn lose three straight games to Columbia in part because of shaky relief pitching. That wasn't the story yesterday.
Veteran Bret Wallace, the first of the cavalry to arrive, cleaned up Marg's mess and pitched a scoreless third to boot. Struggling Andy Console (6.14 ERA after yesterday) surprised with two shutout innings of his own.
Luck simply seemed to be shining on the Red and Blue bullpen - just ask Nick Francona, who faced only two batters, retiring one, and somehow emerging with the win.
And no "bullpen game" would be complete without the appearance of the enigmatic Brown. The senior made a low-pressure cameo to nurse a three-run Penn lead, and it ballooned to seven under his watch.
Brown looked like the stud of old, pitching the seventh and eighth without incident.
It was a welcome reprieve for the senior, who had run into trouble in each of his last three outings.
"Mechanics-wise, body-wise, I felt pretty much the same," Brown said. "The ball just hit the spots that I wanted a little better."
The pen's only blemish came after the game had already been decided. In the ninth, Robbie Seymour fell victim to a passed ball and an error by shortstop William Gordon. Seymour gave up an unearned run on an infield hit, but got the next hitter to end the game.
Cole wasn't bothered by that incident after being treated to a pleasant surprise on a day he thought would favor hitters because of the warm weather.
"Robbie pitched a very good ninth, we just didn't play defense," he said.
One problem down, one to go.
