Midweek mishap at Meiklejohn

"Come on now, you're better than that!" bellowed a voice from the corner of the Penn dugout in the bottom of the fifth inning.

The play itself was inconsequential - merely an ugly hack by sophomore Matt Toffaletti on an off-speed pitch. But the sentiment was significant.

Following a brutal three-loss weekend against Cornell, Penn was similarly flat yesterday afternoon, falling 8-2 to woeful La Salle (7-28) at Meiklejohn Stadium.

After the final out, coach John Cole summoned his team to the center field grass for a post-game meeting, where he proceeded to berate his squad for over 15 minutes, pacing and gesturing as he blasted the day's performance.

"Talked about effort, talked about playing hard, talked about respect for the game," he said of the conference. "On a nice, beautiful day like today, there should be no motivation needed."

The Quakers (12-16, 4-7 Ivy) did get on the board first when Dan Williams' third inning double plated third baseman William Gordon. But the top of the fourth was an exercise in self-destruction for the Red and Blue.

With Reid Terry on the hill, the Explorers pushed six runs across on four hits, two Gordon errors and a hit batter. After fouling off four two-out, two-strike offerings, sophomore John Malloy knocked in two of those runs with a single to right. Two batters later, first baseman T.J. Chism ripped a bases-loaded double to send all three runners home.

La Salle southpaw Sean Kennedy tossed 6.1 innings in long relief to pick up the victory, holding the Quakers to just one run after replacing starter Jamie Cowan.

"He pitched backwards," senior captain Kyle Armeny said. "He threw curveballs and changeups in fastball counts. But it wasn't really anything he did. We just didn't change our approach to combat what he was doing."

Throughout the game, Penn had its chances with men on base - 16 batters reached, in total - but the team could never string together enough timely knocks for a substantial rally.

"It's been a problem all year," Cole said. "We don't seem to get a hit with guys on second and third."

In the bottom of the second, the Quakers thought they'd tallied a run without needing to knock anyone in from scoring position.

Toffaletti launched a towering shot toward the 365 marker in left-center field, where the ball glanced off the plastic yellow lining of the wall - twice - before dropping back into the field of play.

"Pretty incredible that a ball could go that far and land twice on the top of the fence without hitting the screen," said Cole, who went out to argue the play. "I'm gonna go talk to one of the physics professors to see if it's a possibility."

As for the bigger picture, the Quakers don't need a professor - or even Cole - to convey the urgency of their situation.

"I'm gonna guarantee you're gonna see a different team on Saturday," Armeny said. "We're gonna turn this thing around and finish strong. I promise that."

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