Tom Grandieri is nothing if not considerate.
He saved his first collegiate homer for yesterday afternoon, on a day when his older brother - former Penn basketball captain Brian Grandieri - didn't have a single class to interfere with his spectator duties.
The only problem: Brian got to Meiklejohn Stadium an inning too late.
"It's alright," the elder Grandieri said. "His attendance wasn't always perfect for me, either."
"No justification," said the younger brother. "I'll be sure to get on his case."
With or without Brian, the fourth-inning blast helped earn the Quakers a 6-2 victory in the first game of a doubleheader against Saint Joseph's (9-18) yesterday. Penn (9-9, 1-2 Ivy) followed with a 16-5 triumph to complete the sweep.
"Any time you get two wins mid-week, it's a good thing," Penn coach John Cole said. "It's nice that we drove some balls today."
Grandieri's drive, for one, never should have happened. On the previous pitch, the sophomore outfielder hit a high pop-up about 15 feet up the first base line.
Hawks catcher Drew Smith stumbled over Grandieri's bat as he drifted up the line, whiffing on the catch and paving the way for the dinger after the ball spun out of play.
Grandieri wasn't the only Penn player to go deep. Senior captain Kyle Armeny shellacked a hanging curveball from Hawks hurler Randy Mower to give the Quakers a 2-0 edge in the first inning of game two.
Also, sophomores Steve Gable and Jason D'Ambrosio, like Grandieri, cleared the fences for the first time in their college careers yesterday.
D'Ambrosio's shot marked his first collegiate hit of any kind in five career at-bats, while Gable's was merely another highlight in a stellar sophomore campaign.
Still, Gable's blast did come as a bit of a surprise.
"Never hit any in high school unfortunately," said the second baseman, whose average actually dropped, to .457, after a 3-for-7 day at the plate. "I knew it would come sooner or later."
Gable knocked in four more runs yesterday, bringing his total to a team-leading 23. But his most significant at-bat hurt his average.
In a scoreless game one, with runners on second and third and two outs in the second inning, Gable reached on a throwing error from St. Joe's shortstop Joe Cook to score both runs and put the Red and Blue ahead for good.
For the rest of the day, the Quakers' bats did it themselves. Grandieri and Gable homered in the first game, and Penn tallied 14 hits in the nightcap.
But after watching the Quakers go scoreless over the final three innings of the opening game, Brian Grandieri left before the offensive onslaught of game two.
"He's got bad timing this year," the sophomore Grandieri said.
