The University of Pennsylvania showed no love to the Massachusetts baseball team in Philadelphia over the weekend, outscoring the Minutemen (3-7) 28-8 in the series on Saturday.
Game two was the ugliest of the series even with the game starting favorably for the Minutemen. Nolan Tichy hit a two-run homer scoring Carter Hanson to take an early 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning.
Penn (8-7) countered the home run with a big second inning, scoring seven runs in the inning. The rally started with a pair of doubles from Davis Baker and Wyatt Henseler. Then, after a of couple walks and a fielder’s choice, Penn loaded the bases and UMass starter Dylan Terwilliger hit Penn right fielder Jackson Appel with a pitch, tying the game. Ben Miller hit an infield single to take the slim lead then Cole Palis followed with a two RBI single to take a 5-2 lead. That would be it for Terwilliger. Charlie Devin took over and allowed a base-clearing triple to Baker, making the score 7-2. Penn batted 12 hitters in the second inning alone.
Seth Werchan followed the big inning with a three-run homer deep over the right center field wall extend the lead to 10-2 in the third.
Baker hit his second RBI triple of the game in the fourth inning to extend the lead to 11-2. The Quakers’ back-to-back home runs, including Werchan’s second of the game, extended the lead to 11. A pair of two RBI singles and an RBI double ultimately made the lead 18-2.
Penn tacked on one more run for good measure in the form of an RBI single from Henseler in the sixth before the Minutemen ended the game with mild success of their own. UMass added two runs by way of a Jake Given two RBI double, closing out game two with a score of 19-4 in favor of the Quakers.
“Certainly, to their credit, they really came to play,” head coach Matt Reynolds said.
The first game of the series on Saturday also ended with Penn in the winning column, defeating the Minutemen 9-3.
The scoring started early in the second inning for the Quakers when Jarrett Pokrovsky hit a ground ball to shortstop who attempted to turn two but could only get one out at second, scoring Cole Palis from third on the fielder’s choice. Werchan followed that up by reaching on a dropped third strike, scoring Baker from third to give Penn an early 2-0 lead.
Two RBI singles and an RBI double lead the charge in the seventh to extend the game to 5-0 for Penn. A sac fly, a two RBI single and another RBI single extended the lead to nine.
UMass countered with a last-ditch effort to rally a comeback putting up three runs in the final inning. Tichy’s RBI groundout brought Zack Zaetta home then Carter Hanson hit an RBI single, later scoring on a double from Jacob Sloss.
UMass pitching started with Taylor Perrett who went five innings allowing two runs, one earned, with four strikeouts. Renn Lints, Scott LeSieur, and Blake Bennett pitched the last three innings allowing seven runs on nine hits with just three strikeouts.
In the lone game on Friday, the Minutemen found enough success to start the three game series on a high note, as one run was all the Minutemen needed for 1-0 victory on Friday.
The lone run came in the form of a Mike Gervasi solo homer in the top of the sixth, his first of the year. Gervasi was 2-for-3 on the day making him the only player on either team with multiple hits. Hanson and Chris Pearsons each added a hit of their own to the effort.
UMass’ pitching was stellar. Max LeBlanc started his second game of the year for the Minutemen going four innings allowing just two hits while striking out a season high of four. Jack Powloski came in at the start of the fifth inning earning the win with two strikeouts allowing just two hits in 3.2 innings of work. Jackson Harrigan came out to earn the save.
“They’ve been doing a good job all year.” Reynolds said about the pitching.
Penn’s pitching was very steady as well. Starter Owen Coady went seven innings allowing just three hits while striking out 11. Despite the effort, the home run in the sixth would prove to be costly as he got the loss on the day. Carson Ozmer took over for Coady in the eighth allowing just one hit in two innings of work adding two strikeouts as well.
Penn had four hits from four different players while leaving six runners on base.
“We’re gonna have to regroup offensively. We’re not hitting at a level that’s very competitive right now. We have to really dig in this week and make some adjustments before we head to a very good Wichita [State] team” Reynolds said.
UMass has now lost 7 of its last 8 and will look to bounce back in Worcester against Holy Cross on Tuesday at 5pm.
Owen Shelffo can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @owen_shelffo.
