Coach John Cole is proud of how far he has brought his young Penn team.
"[The media] didn't give us a chance, . counted us out early," Cole said. "And we won our first [division] title in 12 years."
But with the Ivy League crown and a trip to the NCAA Tournament on the line, the Quakers' magic ran out against Brown.
Freshman Todd Roth pitched his seventh consecutive complete game, allowing zero earned runs and just six hits. An unearned run in the eighth inning, however, proved to be the difference in the 1-0 game one loss.
In Game 2, the Bears roughed up southpaw Jim Birmingham for nine earned runs in one and two-thirds innings, en route to a 20-6 shellacking to complete the sweep of the best-of-three series.
It was a four-pitch walk to Steve Daniels to lead off the eighth that came back to haunt Roth and the Quakers.
During the next at-bat, Daniels tried to steal his 25th base of the season. Catcher Jeff Cellucci's throw to second beat him, but shortstop William Gordon tried to apply the swipe tag before he caught the throw. The ball wound up in right field - Daniels moved to third with nobody out.
Roth bore down and struck out the next batter on a full count before issuing an intentional walk to setup a potential double play.
Instead, he got the opposing pitcher, Jeff Dietz, to pop weakly in foul ground behind first base.
According to Cole, second baseman Steve Gable "made a good play, but didn't get his feet set or shoulders turned. He took too long to get rid of the ball."
Daniels scampered home for the go-ahead run.
"Speed kills, and they made a good play by sending him," Cole added.
The Quakers, meanwhile, could muster no offense of their own. They managed just three hits off Dietz while striking out 10 times, and advanced a runner as far as second base only twice.
Dietz's "slider went down and away, and we chased," Cole said. "We just didn't take enough of his bad breaking balls, but he's pretty good and is going to make you swing at them."
The Quakers' right-handers were so helpless at the plate that Cole put a pinch-hitter in for senior captain Josh Corn in the ninth inning.
"When the right-hand slideball is carving up your tail like a Thanksgiving turkey, you better get some left-handed hitters in," Cole said.
Michael Gatti, who pinch-hit for Corn with a man on first, was hit by a pitch, setting up the Quakers' lone chance. A groundout left two runners in scoring position with two outs in the ninth. But Alex Nwaka struck out on three pitches to end the game.
Game 2 was ugly from the get-go. The Bears hit a grand slam in each of the first two innings.
Asked whether there was ever a point where he felt his team could win, Cole replied flatly, "No. No."
"We hung in there, but it was tough," he added. "They really dominated us."
Cole thought that the momentum from game one's nail-biter carried over. It also didn't help that Birmingham couldn't locate his curveball and was consistently behind in the count.
Yet Cole was still happy with his team's growth over the course of the season.
As for next year?
"Omaha - or bust!" Cole proclaimed.
"No, I'm just kidding," he quickly said. "We have some question marks on our pitching depth which we've got to resolve. Hopefully everyone comes back better. But that doesn't always happen."
