PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania baseball team slugged its way past Columbia on Saturday by a score of 13-4, moving one step closer to its first Ivy League Playoff title since 1995.
The Quakers offense was clicking early and often as the Red and Blue scored in each of the first five innings in front of an energetic crowd at Meiklejohn Stadium.
How it Happened
Wyatt Henseler drove in the first run of the game for Penn (33-13) in the bottom of the first after a 1-2-3 start for Quakers starter
Kevin Eaise. After Eaise worked around a two-out error in the second, a
Jackson Appel sacrifice fly made it 2-0 Penn.
With two out and a third run already home in the bottom of the third, a
Cole Palis RBI single and
Seth Werchan two-RBI double put the Quakers up six.
Henseler, who set the program single-season home run record on Wednesday, added one more to his total with a no-doubt two-run shot down the line in the fourth. Palis later tacked on two more with an opposite field double, putting Penn up 10-0 heading to the fifth.
Columbia (27-16) put three on the board in the top of the fifth, but
Seth DeVries came out of the bullpen and worked around another two-out error to strand three Lions; Columbia left nine men on base between the second and fifth innings.
The teams traded a run each in the bottom of the fifth and top of the sixth. In the bottom of the seventh,
Nate Polo plated two more with a long double to center, missing a three-run home run by mere inches.
David Shoemaker and
Eli Trop were dominant out of the bullpen over the final three innings, striking out six while allowing just a single baserunner during that stretch.
Quaker Notemeal
* Already the program's single-season record holder in runs scored, home runs, and total bases, Henseler moved within three hits of the single-season record set by Tom Grandieri in 2010 and three RBI of the single-season record of 55, set by Chris May in 2001.
* Shoemaker became the fourth player in program history to make at least 20 appearances on the mound in a season, joining Reid Terry (2008, 2010), Doug Brown (2006), and Mitch Holtz (2016).
* Penn picked up at least 10 hits for the fifth time in the last six games and the 26th time this season. The Quakers also scored at least 10 runs for the 17th time this season.
* With two walks, Palis became just the second Quaker in the last 20 years to draw 30 free passes in a season (Matt O'Neill, 2019).
Up Next
First pitch for Game 2 of the League Playoff Series is tomorrow at 12 PM, with Game 3 (only in the event of a Columbia win) scheduled for roughly 40 minutes after the conclusion of Game 2.
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