Penn baseball loses to Southern Miss, still has regional chance on Monday
A difficult ninth inning for Penn blew a close game into a wide open rout.
The winning streak ends at 10, but Penn baseball isn’t dead yet.
Southern Miss exploded for an eight-run ninth inning to run past Penn, 11-2, in the Auburn regional, the Quakers’ largest loss of the season.
As Penn and Southern Miss now have one loss each in the regional and since it is a double-elimination format, they will meet for a final game on Monday (3 p.m., ESPN+) to determine who gets an automatic berth.
The winner of Monday’s game will face Tennessee in the Super Regional, as the Vols defeated Charlotte 9-2 Sunday night and have already punched their ticket to the next round. With a win tomorrow, Penn will become the first Ivy League team ever to advance to a Super Regional.
» READ MORE: Penn baseball holds off Samford in NCAA regional on another historic night
Statistical leaders
Southern Miss reliever Justin Storm silenced the Penn bats after entering the game in the fourth inning. Storm retired the first 16 Penn hitters he faced. He went a career-high 5⅔ innings, struck out nine, and allowed one hit and zero walks.
Freshman Jarrett Pokrovsky went 2-for-4 for Penn. Wyatt Henseler was 1-for-4 with a home run.
Fielding miscues also hurt the Quakers, as Penn committed three errors.
What we saw
Penn scored first for the third consecutive game at the regional, on a Henseler solo home run shot in the first inning.
The Quakers started senior southpaw Owen Coady on the mound. In his last outing on May 19 against Columbia in the Ivy League Tournament, Coady was pulled due to injury after throwing only eight pitches. On Sunday, he went four innings, striking out three and allowing one earned run on five hits and two walks.
After Southern Miss tied it up in the second, Penn responded quickly to get back in front. In the third, Seth Werchan doubled, advanced on a single from Calvin Brown, and scored on a sacrifice fly from Cole Palis to put the score at 2-1.
Eli Trop, after pitching just ⅔ of an inning against Auburn on Friday, entered the game in relief for Penn and threw 2 ⅓ scoreless innings, allowing one hit, one walk, and striking out three.
Penn had the chance to pad its lead in the fourth, but Brown was called out on a pitch clock violation with a full count and the bases loaded.
The Golden Eagles took their first lead in the sixth inning. Nick Monistere walked and Carson Paetow tripled, and both runners scored following a Penn throwing error to make it a 3-2 game.
Game-changing moment
While the game was a one-run contest for the first eight innings, Southern Miss pulled away in the top of the ninth. Slade Wilks reached on a throwing error, and then a pair of hits scored two runs before Penn recorded a single out. Three more Golden Eagle singles put Penn in a six-run deficit.
A three-run home run off the bat of junior Dustin Dickerson was the death knell for the Quakers, and put Southern Miss out of reach of the Penn offense.
» READ MORE: Penn baseball readies for the bright lights and ‘big crowds’ of NCAA regional play