Baseball Team Edges Penn, 8-7, Then Loses to Holy Cross, 11-3

The Penn baseball team came north last weekend and gave the Crimson varsity two strong boosts in its campaign for the Eastern Intercollegiate League championship. The Crimson edged the Quakers, 8 to 7, on Friday, and the next day Penn topped Dartmouth, the varsity's strongest league competitor, by a score of 4 to 3.

The Crimson's Friday victory, coupled with Dartmouth's loss to Penn, puts the team in sole possession of the league lead with a 5-0 record. The Indians, whom the varsity plays on Wednesday, have won five and lost one.

While the Quakers were doing their good works in Hanover Saturday, however, the Crimson was playing a game at Worcester which it would probably rather forget. Forced to turn to its lower-line pitchers, the varsity was drubbed by Holy Cross, 11 to 3.

In the Penn game, the Crimson squad again showed its amazing ability to win games by one run in the late innings. The team had to break a Quaker lead or tie four times, and the score teetered back and forth until the bottom of the ninth, when fortunately, the Crimson was caught on the upswing.

With the teams deadlocked at 7-all, pinch-hitter George Harrington lined a double down the left-field line, advanced on a sacrifice, and raced home on a suicide squeeze play as Tom Bergantino obligingly tapped a bunt in front of the plate.

Crimson four-game winner Dave Brigham had a shaky start, as Penn scored three times in the first on a couple of walks and three base hits. He settled down nicely, however, and during the middle innings his teammates pushed him into a 5-4 lead, with captain Bob Cleary and Frank Saia collecting two hits apiece.

Then, in the eighth, Brigham began to weaken. Penn tallied two runs on an infield hit, a hit batsman, a walk, and a scoring single to center. Byron Johnson relieved at this point, and ultimately gained credit for the win.

Behind 6 to 5, the Crimson came back in its half of the inning with a matching brace of scores. Two bases on balls off Penn loser Ed Langhorne were followed by run-producing singles by Jim Shue and John Davis.

In the Holy Cross debacle, five extra-base hits, two of them homers by Tom Ryan, gave the Crusaders an easy victory over a varsity team that couldn't seem to do anything against the fast balls of pitcher Jim Farino.