NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. – What a game. The University of Pennsylvania baseball team used a seven-run rally with two outs in the top of the ninth to come from behind and defeat Charleston Southern, 9-6, in the midweek opener Tuesday evening at Nielsen Field.
 
After a disappointing weekend at USC Upstate, the Quakers (3-5) extended CSU's (5-7) losing streak to three consecutive games.
 
Quaker Notemeal
*Three Quakers—Davis Baker, Nick Spaventa and Asa Wilson—tallied two hits in the victory.
 
*Both of Baker's knocks registered exit velocities over 100mph.
 
*Wyatt Henseler launched his team-leading fourth home run of the year in the ninth inning. Two games removed from setting the Ivy League record for career home runs, it was the 36th of his career.
 
*Wilson went 2-for-3 with a walk on his birthday.
 
*Andrew Miehe (1-0) picked up the win his collegiate debut, pitching 1.1 shutout innings with one strikeout. Eli Trop picked up his first save of the year, striking out two in the ninth.
 
*Jake Moss was electric on the mound in relief of Marty Coyne. He allowed just one hit over two innings, striking out four batters.
 
How It Happened
Penn began the day with a leadoff single from Connor Chavez, who ended up scoring from third on a double play to go into the bottom half of the frame with a 1-0 lead.
 
It was an eventful first inning for CSU, scoring two runs on three hits off Marty Coyne, who made his first career start, to take a 2-1 lead.
 
After Penn was set down 1-2-3 to begin the second, Coyne had a bounce-back bottom of the inning with two punchouts to keep the deficit at one.
 
Charleston Southern homered twice in the third inning to extend the advantage to 5-1.
 
Penn tacked on a run in the fourth inning when Gavin Collins flied out to center field on a sacrifice fly, bringing in Nick Spaventa to cut it to 5-2.
 
CSU scored one more time in the sixth to lead 6-3, as Penn pitching did the rest of the work, keeping the Bucs out of the run column the next 2.1 innings.
 
Turning attention to the top of the ninth, the Quakers recorded two quick outs to begin the inning, as Spaventa flied out to left and Ryan Taylor struck out swinging with a runner on first. With Drew Rogers pinch running for Nate Polo, Collins singled to put runners on the corners. Collins advanced to second base while Rogers scored on the wild pitch to make it 6-3.
 
Jarrett Pokrovsky singled to center field on a 3-2 count, bringing in Collins over from second to cut in closer at 6-4. Asa Wilson walked, advancing Pokrovsky to second base. Following a CSU pitching change, Connor Chavez was plunked on the back to load the bases.
 
Davis Baker ripped a double to deep right field, clearing the bases to put the Quakers in front for the first time, 7-6.
 
Wyatt Henseler put the cherry on top with his fourth homer of the season, a two-run bomb into the trees in left field to add to the edge, 9-6. Spaventa continued the inning with a single through the left side, but Nick O'Brien struck out swinging to end the seven-run come-from-behind rally.
 
Eli Trop came into the ninth to record the save, striking out a pair of CSU hitters and retiring the final batter on a fielder's choice to come out with a 9-6 victory.
 
Up Next
Penn will look for the series victory against the Buccaneers with a single game Wednesday at 3 p.m., streamed live on ESPN+.

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