NEW ORLEANS, La. – Tied with Tulane 2-2 through five innings in the opening game of a three-game set Friday night, the University of Pennsylvania baseball team scored six runs over the final four innings, picking up an 8-5 win.
QUAKER NOTEMEAL
* After a 45-pitch first inning, Penn starting pitcher
Owen Coady grinded his way through four, striking out seven while throwing 103 pitches.
*
David Shoemaker struck out a career-high six batters in 4.2 innings in relief for the win, the longest outing of his career. Shoemaker has set career-highs for innings pitched in all three of his appearances this season (3.1 IP on 2/25 against South Carolina, 3.2 IP against Lamar on 3/4)
* Penn's offense recorded at least 10 hits in back-to-back games for the first time this season.
* Penn's top four hitters (
Jackson Appel,
Ben Miller,
Wyatt Henseler,
Jarrett Pokrovsky) finished a combined 7-for-16 with six RBI. Including
Cole Palis,
Calvin Brown, and
Davis Baker, Penn's 1-7 hitters finished a combined 12-for-31, with all seven recording at least one hit.
* Appel, who entered 1-for-11 over his last three games, finished 3-for-3, raising his season average 67 points.
* Baker hit safely for the sixth time in seven starts. Entering the two-game series with Nicholls State earlier this week hitting .235, he's raised his average 95 points in the last three games.
* Pokrovsky drove in a game-high three runs, surpassing his RBI total for the season coming in (two).
HOW IT HAPPENED
Appel led off the game with a single but was eventually stranded. In the bottom of the inning, Coady worked his way through a two-walk frame, yielding just a single run while stranding the bases loaded.
In the top of the third, a
Cole McGonigal walk and Appel double just inside the third base line put two runners in scoring position with nobody out.
Miller followed with a single to left, plating McGonigal. After a strikeout, Pokrovsky put Penn in front with a sac fly to left, scoring Appel.
The lead did not last long as Tulane tied the score with a leadoff home run in the bottom of the inning. The Green Wave were inches away from taking the lead back later in the inning, but a heads-up play by Palis kept the game tied.
Penn loaded the bases in the fourth with two out, but left them loaded. In his final inning of the day, Coady struck out the first two batters, then, picked off a runner on first after allowing a two-out walk.
Four hits and a pair of walks led to a four-spot in the sixth for Penn. Baker and pinch-hitter
Carson Ozmer opened the inning with singles and McGonigal walked to load the bases with no one out.
After Appel drove in the go-ahead run with a sac fly to left and Miller walked to reload the bases, Henseler made it 4-2 with a base hit to right.
Pokrovsky followed with a two-run single to left, breaking the game open.
In the bottom of the sixth, Tulane threatened to cut into the lead, loading the bases with one out, but Shoemaker escaped the threat with a fielder's choice force out at the plate and a strikeout.
Tulane got a run back in the bottom of the seventh, but the Quakers re-gained the four-run lead in the top of the eighth on a wild pitch following a strikeout that would have ended the inning.
As he did in the sixth, Shoemaker escaped trouble in the eighth, stranding two runners in scoring position with a strikeout to end the inning, despite falling down while throwing the pitch.
Palis led off the ninth with a single, then came all the way around to score when
Seth Werchan reached on a two-out error. That extra run proved all the more critical when Tulane scored twice on three hits in the bottom of the ninth and brought the tying run to the plate, but
Edward Sarti closed out the win with a strikeout.
Up Next
First pitch for game two of the series is set for 7:00 PM ET / 6:00 PM CT tomorrow night.
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