University of Maine
Penn
Baseball Suffers Tough Loss to Penn
3/7/2011 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Winter Park, Fla. -- The University of Pennsylvania relied on several multi-run innings to slip past the University of Maine 7-4 on Monday afternoon in Winter Park, Fla. Penn scored two in the second to take a one run lead, three in the fourth to take another one run lead, and then two in the eighth to put the game out of reach. Maine falls to 3-9 while Penn jumps to 1-2 on the season.
Junior, A.J. Bazdenes (Nashua, N.H.) started strong for the Black Bears as he struck out the side in the Penn half of the first. Maine then quickly capitalized when Fran Whitten (Westborough, Mass.) doubled in Taylor Lewis (Montville, Conn.), who had walked and stole second with two outs to give the Black Bears a 1-0 lead.
Penn countered in the second when Will Davis scored on a Rick Brebner single through the left side for the first run and then Derek Vigoa singled to knock in Greg Zebrack who had bunted for a base hit.
The game looked as if it would continue the torrid pace as Maine came back with three runs of its own in the bottom half of the third. Lewis started the action by walking for the second straight time. Whitten then doubled to score Lewis once again. Tyler Patzalek (Burlington, Ontario) then singled to put runners on the corners for Alex Calbrick (Burnaby, B.C.). Calbrick came through with an rbi single to right as Whitten scored. Matt Verrier (Norway, Maine) supplied the final scoring of the inning when he reach on a fielder's choice that scored Patzalek.
The Quakers wasted no time charging right back at Maine with three runs of their own in the top of the fourth. Spencer Branigan started off the inning with a much needed bang as he doubled to center. With one out, Zebrack was then hit by a Bazdenes pitch. Rick Brebner then singled to load the bases with still only one out. Vigoa then came up with his second rbi hit as he knocked in two more runs for Penn. Brandon Engelhardt singled in Vigoa to give Penn the lead for good at 5-4.
Penn would then tack on two more runs in the eighth when Brebner singled in the final two runs of the game.
Freshman, TJ McNulty recorded the win for the Quakers, going six and a third innings, while allowing four runs on eleven hits. Sophomore, Kirk Hayes picked up his first save of the season in relief.
Bazdenes took the loss for Maine, going seven and a third innings, allowing seven runs on 10 hits. He was relieved by Shaun Coughlin (Northford, Conn.), who gave up a hit in two thirds of an inning and Mike Connolly (Middleborough, Mass.), who worked a full inning of his own, allowing one hit.
The Black Bears return to action tomorrow, March 8, at 6 p.m. when they travel to Tallahassee to take on national power, Florida State University. The game will be televised regionally by FOX Sports Florida.
-U-M-
