Baseball | Almost doesn't count

In what has been a season of close losses, disheartening Ivy weekends and unfulfilled expectations, Penn baseball had one last chance to salvage a shot at the Gehrig Division with two doubleheaders against Princeton this weekend.

But by the time the Quakers notched a win in the last of their four-game set, it was too late. They almost took a game from a likely future pro pitcher. They almost compensated for a depleted pitching staff with some freshmen fill-ins. They were almost swept by their archrivals at Meiklejohn Stadium.

However, freshman left-hander Chris McNulty spun a gem in the series' final game, a 4-0 Penn victory. His complete-game six-hitter allowed the Red and Blue to salvage something from a humbling weekend.

"After the setbacks [Saturday], I knew I kinda had to come out and put up a good performance," McNulty said. "We needed to get one win this weekend - at least one."

It was a welcome result after Penn's effort in game one yesterday, a 5-0 loss in which it could scrape together just three hits, and its two crushing losses Saturday, a 5-4 extra-inning contest in the opener and a narrow 7-4 nightcap.

"We're competitors," junior second baseman Steve Gable said, "and losing three is never what we'd call a good weekend."

Penn didn't swing the bats well, going a combined 26-for-126 (a .208 average). And with pitchers Reid Terry and Robbie Seymour out, the staff was stretched thin as well.

"We've been stung more than a person going into a beehive," coach John Cole said. "But there's no quitting. They didn't quit today."

The outcome, however, could easily have been very different.

In perhaps the most electric atmosphere the Quakers have experienced all season, the series opener saw a matchup of staff aces Todd Roth and Princeton right-hander David Hale, who drew enough pro scouts to fill out the seats behind home plate.

Penn was able to hit Hale's 95-mph fastball and the Tigers pushed Roth's pitch count to a whopping 142.

Penn freshman shortstop Derek Vigoa tied the game at four with a two-out RBI double in the seventh, but the Quakers couldn't get him home, as the game went to extra innings.

With a single, a hit batter, an intentional walk, a sacrifice bunt and an RBI groundout in the ninth, Princeton was able to plate the go-ahead run.

And if the Quakers had come out on top in a game like that, who knows what would have happened in the next three. Beating a pitcher like Hale is a weekend-changing boost.

"David Hale's a pro," Cole said. "He had probably his best day as a college pitcher because he had a changeup and slider working, which he never usually does. He had 30 scouts here watching him. That kid made some money.

"We were one hit away from sending him home with a loss."

It would have been memorable. But even in a season the Quakers might want to forget, "almost" provides little solace.

"We didn't get it done," Cole said, "and that's been the story of the year."

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