Penn Nine Rips Harvard, 4-1

Harvard's varsity baseball team has captured the Eastern Intercollegiate Baseball championship in each of the last four years, but yesterday at Soldier's Field it was the Quakers of Pennsylvania who established themselves as the team to best in this year's title race.

The final score was 4-1, Pennsylvania and the heroes of the game were Quaker pitching act Andy Muhlstock's and centerfielder Tom Brandt, Muhlstock's 12 strikeouts and Brandt's dramatic three-run homer in the sixth inning tell the whole story, as the league-leading quakers rolled to their fourth EIBL victory in as many outings and Harvard dropped its league opener.

The outcome of the crucial showdown repaid a debt which has been bothering the Pennsylvania club for almost a year now, ever since the Crimson nine swept a critical doubleheader in Philadelphia to eliminate the Quakers from the 1974 title chase. The key last year was a spectacular pitching duel which saw Harvard's Milt Holt upset Muhlstock, 2-1, but yesterday's battle saw a new ending to the script.

With Holt and Muhlstock locking horns again, it was not until the fourth inning that the first run crossed the plate. After Harvard's Hawalian pitching ace had worked out of a tight jam in the opening frame, his teammetes staked him to a 1-0 lead in the fourth when left fielder Barry Cronin dumped a single into right field bringing home Joe Sciolla, who had singled and stolen second.

Nursed a Small Lead

Holt nursed the small lead into the sixth inning, and appeared in complete control as he retired the first two Quaker hitters in the inning on harmless ground balls. Less than ten pitches lster, however, Harvard was trailing 3-1.

The death blow was delivered quickly, and shockingly, by centerfielder Brandt. After Ted Alfere bounced a single under third-baseman Fran Cronin's glove and Rick Krieger followed with a base hit to center, Brandt stopped up to the plate and deposited Holt's first pitch over the centerfield fence.

The two-run pad was all that Muhlstock needed, although the Quaker batsmen did oblige him with another marker the result of three singles in the seventh inning.

The senior, considered to be the best at what he does in the EIBL struck out five of six batters faced in the seventh and eighth stanzas and put the finishing touches on the 4-1 victory be recording his twelfth strikeout to open the ninth.