Mishaps, missed chances in eighth

For seven innings, Penn's makeshift pitching operation bent but didn't break, allowing just three runs despite 13 baserunners.

But in a madcap eighth inning, the Quakers rickety bullpen finally collapsed.

Ironically, Lafayette's three-run rally started with a strikeout.

Penn's William Gordon rung up Leopards shortstop Daniel Bierce to open the eighth, but catcher Mike Mariano could not corral Gordon's low breaking ball, allowing Bierce to advance to first on the passed ball.

"I struck him out, so I was pretty excited about that," Gordon said. "But you'd like to have that leadoff guy out of the way, especially when you're up two so late in the game."

Initially, it didn't look as though the folly would cost the Quakers. With Bierce on third and one out - he advanced on another passed ball and throwing error from Mariano - center fielder Rob Froio tapped a suicide squeeze attempt right back to Gordon, who shoveled a throw to the plate in time to get Bierce.

But after Gordon had seemingly eluded the threat, the strike zone began to elude Gordon.

He drilled senior Tom Hayes in the back with a pitch. A subsequent walk to junior Chris Luick loaded the bases, prompting Penn coach John Cole to call on right-hander Reid Terry to replace Gordon.

Gordon felt as though he had enough left to avert disaster yet again.

"I would've liked to finish what I started," he said. "But it's not my job to question anything."

Terry promptly walked the first man he faced, forcing in a run to pull Lafayette within one.

Then, with the game on the line, in stepped infield defensive replacement A.J. Pisarri - all 5-foot-10, 175 pounds of him.

As if out of karmic retribution for the Quakers' wayward mound work, the Leopards seemed to have a little help on this one.

Despite being jammed by Terry's offering, Pisarri managed to dunk it over the head of Penn shortstop Dan Williams, plating two runs to give Lafayette a 6-5 lead they would never relinquish.

"So many big plays in that inning," Cole recalled in frustration. "And then they got that little dumper."

He bemoans the wacky sequence that started it all.

"Can't start an inning off with a strikeout that puts a guy on base," he said. "Just can't do it."

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