PLYMOUTH MEETING, Pa. - The University of Pennsylvania baseball team won convincingly on Wednesday afternoon, taking down the Villanova Wildcats by a score of 15-4 in eight innings. With back-to-back midweek wins and seven wins in their last eight overall, the Quakers move to a season-best six games over .500, 17-11.
Quaker Notemeal
- The Quakers have now scored at least 15 runs in five games this season, surpassing their total from all of last season.
- Quaker batters struck out just once on Wednesday, a new season-best.
- Wyatt Henseler finished with two home runs, extending his hitting streak to 11 games; he also raised his season batting average for the seventh straight game, climbing over .300 for the first time this year.
- Henseler also drove in a season-high seven runs, the ninth occurrence of a Penn player recording at least five RBI dating back to the start of 2022; Henseler has three of those nine.
- John Cerwinski allowed just one hit in two scoreless innings; he's now posted five straight scoreless innings over his last two appearances.
- Thomas Shurtleff recorded his first scoreless appearances of the season, yielding two hits over two innings.
- Wednesday marked Penn's second 10-run rule victory over Villanova this season; the Quakers downed the Wildcats 15-5 in seven innings back on March 15 in the team's home opener.
How it Happened
After trading zeroes in the first inning,
Ryan Taylor gave the Quakers an early lead with an RBI single in the second inning, giving the freshman 16 RBI for the season.
Asa Wilson would follow with an RBI groundout to former Quaker shortstop
Craig Larsen, making it 2-0 in favor of Penn.
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In the bottom of the second inning,
John Cerwinski retired the first two batters quickly, but then a line drive into the left-center field gap appeared to extend the inning. Centerfielder
Seth Werchan was quick to the ball and quicker to release, showing off a strong arm to cut down the hitter trying to extend the single into a double, ending the inning.
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Werchan and
Asa Wilson were in the middle of the scoring in the 4th inning. With two outs, Werchan ripped a double into the right-center field gap, and Wilson followed up with a little league home run (triple and error) to center field.
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After Shurtleff's second scoreless inning of work, another two runs came home for the Quakers in the fifth inning on Henseler's first home run of the day, a two-run shot to center that gave the Quakers a 6-0 lead.
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Left-hander
Will Tobin would replace
Thomas Shurtleff in the 5th inning and promptly sat down the Wildcats in order. Henseler's bat remained white-hot in the top of the 6th inning, launching a grand slam to left to bring home Wilson, Palis, and
Jarrett Pokrovsky, who had reached on an error and two walks, respectively. It was Henseler's first-career grand slam and put Penn up 10-0.
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Tobin would work another 1-2-3 inning in the 6th, striking out two. In the 7th inning, the Quakers would tack on another run off the bat of Wilson, who brought home Taylor with an RBI single.
The Villanova bats pushed four across in the bottom of the inning, the big blow coming in the form of a three-run home run, avoiding a 10-run loss, but only briefly.
In the top of the 8th, the Quakers would match Villanova's four runs from the previous inning with four of their own. Pokrovsky laced a double into right-center, then came in to score on a Henseler RBI single. Penn later loaded the bases for Taylor, who drilled a single, bringing home both Henseler and
Davis Baker. Werchan would bring home the 15th and final Quaker run of the day with a sacrifice fly.
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Eli Trop took over in the bottom of the 8th inning, and struck out two Wildcats in a scoreless frame, ending the game.
Up Next
The Quakers hit the road this weekend, returning to Ivy League play in Providence against Brown.
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