PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania baseball team swept an Ivy League doubleheader from Brown on Saturday, taking Game 1 5-2 before surviving one scare after another in a marathon 13-inning 2-1 win in Game 2.
 
Between the two games, the Quakers honored the nine members of the team's class of 2022: Brendan Bean, Sam Bennett, Robby Cerulle, Tommy Courtney, Seth DeVries, Kevin Eaise, Andrew Hernandez, Craig Larsen, and Joe Miller. Several of those nine played pivotal roles in Saturday's action.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED (GAME 1)
Brown threatened early after a leadoff triple in the second, but Eaise induced a pop up before getting back-to-back strikeouts to escape the early trouble. The Bears came right back in the third and broke through for two.
 
After a quiet first three innings, Penn exploded for five in the fifth. Wyatt Henseler led off the inning with his team-leading 11th home run of the season. After Ben Miller and Larsen followed with singles, Cole Palis was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Hernandez followed with a double down the line, scoring Miller and Larsen. Seth Werchan followed with a two-run opposite field single, scoring Palis and Hernandez.
 
That 5-2 lead held across the final 4.5 innings, as Eaise went seven, allowing those two early runs while striking out six and walking just one. Sam Bennett worked his way into, then out of trouble in the seventh, and David Shoemaker lowered his ERA to 0.57 and extended his scoreless streak to 9.2, picking up his first save of the season with a scoreless eighth and ninth.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED (GAME 2)
Cole Palis doubled in Larsen for the first run of the game in the second inning, but that was all the offense for either side for 4+ innings, as Penn (25-9, 11-2) mustered just one more hit through six while Miller carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning, matching his career-high with 10 strikeouts.
 
The Bears finally got to Miller in the seventh, breaking up the no-hitter and tying the game. In the top of the ninth with one out and one on, a Courtney-to-Larsen-to-Jackson Appel relay cut down the go-ahead run at the plate following a double to center field.
 
In the 10th inning, Brown (8-21, 3-11) loaded the bases with nobody out, but Carson Ozmer escaped unscathed after inducing a line out, a fielders' choice and fly out. Brown again loaded the bases, this time with one out, in the top of the 13th, but DeVries worked his way out of trouble with a strikeout and a ground out.
In the bottom of the 13th, Henseler walked and Miller singled with one out, with Henseler later advancing to third on a Larsen fly out. Next up was Palis, who launched a two-strike delivery to deep right-center that Brown's right fielder dropped on the warning track, allowing Henseler to score the winning run, ending Penn's longest home game of the season.
 
QUAKER NOTEMEAL
*Penn clinched its first 25+ win season since 1996 while picking up its 14th home win of the season, the most by the program since 2017.
 
*Miller fell nine outs shy of Penn's first no-hitter in more than 20 years (Andrew McCreery vs. Yale; April 8, 2001)
 
*Eaise remained perfect in Ivy League play, picking up his fifth consecutive win in conference starts. The right-hander remained among the top five in Ivy play in ERA (2.25), strikeouts (31) and opponent batting average (.229).
 
*Penn's 11-2 record in Ivy play marks its best 13-game conference start since an identical 11-2 back in 2015.
 
UP NEXT
The teams will wrap the series tomorrow at 12 p.m. from Meiklejohn Stadium.