Penn baseball’s season ends with extra-inning loss to St. John’s in NCAA Tournament

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — In a high-scoring and high-drama Saturday afternoon, Penn baseball fell just short to St. John’s in the 12th inning of its NCAA regional elimination game.

The Red Storm put together a two-out walk, a stolen base, and a single to finally break a stalemate and walk off the Quakers, 10-9. St. John’s (38-17-1) advanced to Sunday’s elimination game against Mississippi State, while Penn’s season ended in the Charlottesville Regional.

St. John’s had multiple chances to finish off pesky Penn (24-25) before finally breaking through. With the potential winning run rounding third base for St. John’s in the 10th, Penn catcher Asa Wilson tagged out Jackson Tucker at the plate to keep the Quakers’ season alive, and Tucker was ejected for malicious contact. In the 11th, the Red Storm twice flew out to the warning track.

Tensions between the teams were high throughout the extra innings.

“You want to play with emotion, but you have to be in control of what you’re doing,” said Penn coach John Yurkow. “When that emotion gets a little bit too out of control, you’re not going to be able to perform at a high level. I almost thought for a second we kind of got away from what we do well and it was a little too emotional. We had to get people centered, back to playing quality baseball, and focusing on the game and not all the peripheral stuff.”

Penn’s offense quieted after the eighth inning, while lefty Will Tobin kept the Red Storm at bay until Anthony Brienza’s RBI base hit.

“You start getting that deep into a game, and you’re bringing guys in maybe in some spots that they’re not accustomed to,” Yurkow said. “Those guys hung in, Eli [Trop] was really good. Will came in and gave us some innings. Unfortunately, we put a guy on, he steals second. They single, ballgame over. But it wasn’t for lack of competing, for sure.”

After only amassing four hits Friday in their 4-2 loss to host Virginia, the Quakers surpassed that by the third inning Saturday. Penn finished with 16 hits, 10 of which came in two-out situations.

After falling behind St. John’s early, the Quakers strung together five hits, one walk, and one hit batsman to plate seven runs in the seventh inning, all with two outs.

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Wyatt Henseler, the Ivy League player of the year, picked an opportune time for his first hit of the regional, sending a base hit into left field to give Penn its first lead of the day. Davis Baker followed it with a two-run double, and what had been a four-run deficit entering the seventh became a three-run advantage.

The Quakers started the game aggressive at the plate against St. John’s starter Mario Pesca, swinging early in the count and frequently putting the ball in play. No Penn batter struck out until the fourth inning.

St. John’s initially presented a different offensive threat compared to Virginia’s heavy-hitting lineup on Friday, with the Red Storm entering Saturday with just 41 home runs. St. John’s relied on small ball to build its early lead against Penn but found success late in the game with some timely home runs.

The Red Storm’s baserunning was a difference maker, going 5-for-5 on stolen-base attempts.

St. John’s pulled back within one with a two-run homer in the eighth. Then, after left fielder Garrett Scavelli leaped up the left field fence to rob Baker of a homer in the top of the ninth, Jimmy Keenan launched a game-tying homer off Carson Ozmer in the bottom of the frame, sending the game into extra innings.

“Definitely when I hit that, I definitely thought that was going out,” Baker said. “I was pretty surprised to see him even going for it. … Just tip my cap to that. It’s definitely kind of a momentum-switcher. I definitely noticed it in their side of the dugout, it had seemed a little dead before that.”