Bell tolls at Liberty Classic

In a turn of events that echoed this past weekend, the Penn baseball team dug itself into an early hole, yet regained the lead with some timely hitting.

This time, however, they weren’t expecting their opponents to up the ante.

The Quakers suffered a frustrating 14-8 loss yesterday afternoon to Delaware in the second round of the Liberty Bell Classic, as one Quaker comeback was not enough to stifle the powerful Blue Hen lineup.

Delaware will now advance to the final round of the Classic to be held at Citizen’s Bank Park on April 20.

The Blue Hens smacked around Quaker starter John Beasley, and held a 7-3 lead by the end of the third inning. Penn then tied the game up in the fifth frame with a four run outburst, before tacking on another in the sixth to make it 8-7.

The one-run lead didn’t stand up for long however, as the shaky Quaker bullpen surrendered a combined seven runs over the next three innings, keeping the game well out of reach for the Red and Blue.

“The first time we got down we battled back really well, but then once they got the lead again it’s like we didn’t fight back,” third baseman Dan Williams said. “We need to keep pushing through that once they get the lead and keep working. We just didn’t do it.”

The Quakers’ hurlers struggled throughout the afternoon, surrendering 17 hits overall in addition to four free passes, three hit batsman and five wild pitches.

“We left the ball up and Delaware can hit,” coach John Cole said. “If you leave it up, you’re gonna get smoked, and we didn’t make good pitches all day. When you elevate, you’re in trouble.”

Though the offense was able to produce decent run support, the lineup was by no means on top of its game.

“I think the offense isn’t where it needs to be,” Williams said. “We need to go one through nine having good at bats every time. Right now we’re not getting that. We’re still having bad at bats, swinging at balls in the dirt — pitches that you need to stay off of to keep a rally going.”

The Quakers starting lineup struck out 11 times during the day, with four batters going down on strikes twice.

The worst of it came in the bottom of the 8th — just after Penn had its first two hitters reach base — when the Quakers’ three- and four-hole batters went down watching consecutive strike threes.

While under most circumstances eight runs would have sufficed, the defense — which ranks near the bottom of the Ivy League in both errors and fielding percentage — left little wiggle room as it committed another three errors.

“We didn’t do anything well today,” Cole said. “We didn’t pitch it, we didn’t hit it, and we didn’t field it. You really don’t beat the other team, you beat yourself, and we beat ourselves today.”

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.