PHILADELPHIA – A three-run eighth inning turned a 3-2 deficit into a 5-3 win for the University of Pennsylvania baseball team over Wagner College Saturday afternoon from Meiklejohn Stadium.
 
Penn (10-5) picked up its fifth straight win and its seventh win in eight games with its third comeback win in the last four days.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
Penn starter Owen Coady and Wagner (2-14) starter Daniel Merkel were perfect (literally) early on, as the two combined to retire the first 15 batters of the game across the first 2.5 innings, with Coady striking out the side swinging in the top of the third.
 
Carson Ozmer led off the bottom of the third with a double down the right field line, later advancing to third on a single to left by Nate Polo. On the very next pitch, Cole Palis reached on a throwing error by the Wagner first baseman, with Ozmer scoring on the play and Polo advancing to second. After a Tommy Courtney sacrifice bunt moved the runners to second and third, Wyatt Henseler knocked in Polo with a sacrifice fly to center.
 
Coady finally surrendered his first hit of the game in the fourth when Seth Werchan just missed a highlight-reel diving catch, but a Werchan-to-Craig-Larsen-to-Henseler relay nabbed the runner attempting to stretch the play into a triple.
 
In the fifth, a walk, a single, a wild pitch, and a sacrifice fly got Wagner on the board, the first run surrendered by Coady this season. The Seahawks took the lead the following lead on a two-run double.
 
After a quiet seventh and top of the eighth, Penn took advantage of some wild pitching and fielding in the eighth. Henesler opened the frame with a four-pitch walk, advancing to second when Appel was hit with a 3-0 pitch. Next up stepped Miller, who chopped one back to the pitcher, but the throw to first was spiked into the ground, leaving the bases loaded for Larsen.
 
The program's active RBI leader added two more with a double to left, slinging the Quakers back out in front. After Ozmer was intentionally walked to re-load the bases, a fielding error on a ground ball off the bat of Palis allowed Miller to score an insurance run for Penn.
 
Wagner got the tying run to the plate in the ninth on a leadoff single, but Cole Zaffiro closed out the win in style, striking out three straight batters swinging for his second win of the season.
 
QUAKER NOTEMEAL
*Penn's five-game winning streak is its longest since winning eight in a row from March 9-20, 2019.
 
*Penn picked up the win despite registering just five hits, its second-lowest total of the season, and just one day removed from setting a season-high with 18. The Quakers entered Saturday with at least 12 hits in five of their previous six games.
 
*Just one day after Kevin Eaise set a new season-high for strikeouts in a game with nine, Coady one-upped him with 10, giving him 31 in just 21.2 innings this season.
 
*Zaffiro finished his three-inning outing with five strikeouts, tying his season-high, giving him 20 in 14.1 innings this season.
 
*Larsen joined Henseler and Miller with his fourth multi-RBI game of the season, tops on the team
 
UP NEXT
The Quakers and Seahawks wrap the three-game series tomorrow with first pitch slated for 1:00 p.m.