Baseball | McNulty gem glitters above all

Freshman pitcher Chris McNulty has come a long way since his first start against Delaware March 31. In that game, he surrendered eight earned runs in six innings of work.

Saturday, however, McNulty led the Quakers to their first conference victory by pitching a complete game and allowing just three earned runs in the process.

The baseball team played four games this past weekend at Cornell but only won McNulty's gem, 6-3. They dropped the other three, 12-5, 3-2, and 6-4, respectively.

Coach John Cole and the team did not make themselves available for comment.

In addition to McNulty's impressive performance in Penn's lone weekend win, designated hitter Jeremy Maas also had an excellent outing. He went 3-for-5 with two runs scored and two runs batted in.

In Saturday's loss, Todd Roth was on the mound, looking to reverse his trend of subpar performances this year. However, the junior couldn't bust out of his slump, as he surrendered 12 runs (seven earned) in just six innings on the hill. The Quakers (11-19, 1-11 Ivy) also made four costly errors in the game.

Yesterday's first game ended with a walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth inning, giving the Big Red (8-17, 5-7) the 3-2 victory. Penn's Vince Voiro pitched 6.1 solid innings, giving up only two earned runs.

The following game was also a heartbreaker for the Quakers, as Cornell scored four runs in the bottom of the ninth - including a three-run walk-off homer - to hand Penn a 6-4 loss.

Penn continues to struggle against the Ivy League this season, as it fell to a lowly 1-11 in the conference.

But, with the exception of Roth's outing, Penn's pitching wasn't to blame. This is good news for the Quakers, considering they gave up a combined 41 runs against Yale and Brown last weekend.

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