Baseball | Hens' seventh-inning stretch dooms Quakers

The Penn baseball team began the seventh inning trailing the Delaware Blue Hens 4-3, with Delaware's bottom three hitters coming to the plate.

Freshman pitcher Chris McNulty walked the seventh-place hitter, gave up a double to the eighth, walked the ninth and the first, and then gave up a grand slam to Delaware's Ryan Cuneo.

And just like that, the score was 9-3.

The Quakers (10-12, 0-4 Ivy) ended up losing, 13-5, to Delaware yesterday afternoon at Meiklejohn Stadium - their fifth loss in a row. In that fateful seventh inning, the Blue Hens (16-8) scored a total of nine runs on seven hits, including two home runs. Delaware has hit 41 home runs this season.

"Chris McNulty pitched a great game," coach John Cole said. "He had a good game plan, he implemented, he located, he really had them off balance."

McNulty, for his part, regrets letting the bottom of the order get the best of him in the seventh.

"I was pitching well. I was keeping the ball down, throwing strikes all over the plate," McNulty said. "In the seventh inning, I lost control of some pitches, made some mistakes to some kids in the bottom of the order, kids that I should've gotten out."

Despite its struggles, Penn did put together two solid innings in yesterday's ball game - the first and the ninth.

In the first, junior first baseman William Gordon drove in two runs on a single to left-center field to put the Quakers up 2-0.

Sophomore Matt Tellem pinch hit in the bottom of the ninth and recorded his first career hit when he doubled down the third base line. Junior Tom Grandieri hit a deep fly ball that fell for a double and drove in two to score the Quakers' fourth and fifth runs.

If Penn hopes to find a way out of the slump it's currently in, the first target is its pitching, as the Red and Blue have given up an average of 11.4 runs per game during their five-game losing streak.

"We're just in a funk right now," Cole said. "Somebody's gotta step up and create a big-run inning for us or a stop on the mound."

To be sure, the big inning has been the Quakers' kryptonite in recent days. In a crushing loss to Dartmouth on Saturday, the Red and Blue surrendered five runs, then six runs, in the seventh and eighth innings, respectively. Two days later, the pitching staff allowed Harvard to rally for at least three runs in three separate innings.

"This is a very monkey-see, monkey-do game," Cole said. "We need some positive things to happen to get out of this because we're a way better club than what we're playing right now."

Penn has played its last five games in just four days, and a few days of rest couldn't come at a better time. Up next for the Quakers are two road Ivy League doubleheaders this weekend.

With an 0-4 conference record, Penn needs to perform well in these games in order to climb out of the bottom of the League standings.

"We got Brown and Yale . two really good Ivy League teams," McNulty said. "I think the guys are going to come ready to play because we can't go 2-2 this weekend. We got to have a winning series or else we're going to be in trouble."