Leopards Claw Back To Win

In a contest riddled with walks, balks, hit batters and wild pitches, the only thing Penn's hurlers couldn't tally was a win.

Lafayette rallied from 5-1 down to upend the Quakers 6-5 at Meiklejohn Stadium, eliminating the Red and Blue from the eight-team Liberty Bell Classic.

"We let them back in," Penn coach John Cole said. "We should have expanded that lead, and then we gave them opportunities with the walks and hit-by-pitches."

In the early innings, the Quakers (6-7) jumped on Leopards' starter Ryan Hanna, tagging him for four runs in just 2.2 innings of work.

Leading off for the first time all season, sophomore Tom Grandieri drilled a double to kick off the bottom of the first and later scored on a Kyle Armeny single.

Two batters later, third baseman William Gordon - whose inside-the-park home run last Saturday keyed a victory over Mount Saint Mary's - did his damage the conventional way, swatting a two-run shot over the left-field wall to give Penn a 3-0 edge.

"I really struggled in Florida [over spring break], so I've had to start over with my swing pretty much," Gordon said. "I'm just trying to let the ball get a little bit deeper now."

An Armeny solo blast in the third gave the Quakers another insurance run, and behind a committee of pitchers that included staff ace Todd Roth, Penn shut the Leopards (10-6) out until the fifth inning.

Rob Froio's run-scoring double to left put Lafayette on the board in the fifth, but the Red and Blue responded with an RBI single from second baseman Steve Gable the following inning.

Then the Quakers' erstwhile steady arms began to falter.

Grandieri - who had relieved sophomore Matt Toffaletti the previous inning to get out of a bases-loaded jam - allowed three consecutive singles to lead off the seventh.

Cole strolled to the mound for a conference with his southpaw, but with a dearth of bullpen arms to choose from, he left Grandieri in to put out his own fire.

Grandieri couldn't quite fan all the flames, but he did limit the damage, allowing just two runs to keep the Quakers ahead 5-3.

In the eighth, Gordon came in to protect the lead he helped build. But unlike in Saturday's contest, when Gordon coupled his inside-the-park shot with a save , the sophomore flamethrower could not shut the door.

Gordon left the bases loaded with two outs, before Cole handed the ball to sophomore Reid Terry.

After walking Lafayette's Tom Abrosole on five pitches to force in a run, Terry surrendered a two-run bloop single to pinch-hitter A.J. Pisarri, putting the Leopards ahead 6-5.

The Quakers had their chances at the plate in the final innings, but they failed to push the tying run across. Penn left the bases loaded in the bottom of the eighth and could not capitalize on catcher Mike Mariano's leadoff double in the ninth.

With two outs and a man on second, Cole called on backup catcher Jeff Cellucci to pinch hit for freshman Adrian Lorenzo, despite Cellucci's .059 batting average on the season.

"They had a left-handed breaking ball guy coming in," Cole said. "I thought Jeff would step up and hit the ball hard."

He did not, and nubbed a dribbler to the shortstop to drop his average to .056 - and drop the Quakers' below .500.

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