AUBURN, Ala. – More than 10,000 days after their only other meeting, the University of Pennsylvania and Auburn baseball teams squared off in a back-and-forth battle in the opening round of 2023 NCAA Regional play Friday night at Plainsman Park, needing extra innings to decide the victor.
 
The Quakers scored three runs in the top of the 11th to get past the overall No. 13 seed and regional host Tigers, 6-3, and advance to the winner's bracket to face Samford Saturday night at 9 p.m. EDT/8 p.m. CDT.
 
Quaker Notemeal
* Penn earns its first NCAA Regional victory since 1990, a 5-3 win over UC Santa Barbara.
 
* The Quakers give the Ivy League its first win against an SEC opponent in the NCAA Championship, improving the conference's record in such instances to 1-9 all-time.

* The Red and Blue extends its win streak to nine straight games, the program's longest of the season and longest since a nine-game winning streak from March 19 to April 2, 2017.
 
* Penn won for just the second time this season when trailing after seven innings (1-10).
 
* The Quakers played just their third extra-inning game of the year, improving to 2-1, and their first 11+ inning game since a 2-1, 13-inning win over Brown on April 23, 2022.
 
* Wyatt Henseler recorded an extra-base hit for the 12th straight game, finishing 2-for-6.

* Cole Palis went 0-for-4, but drew a walk in the eighth inning to extend his reached base streak to 36 straight games.
 
* Ryan Dromboski started and went 5.1 innings, striking out eight while surrendering just three hits and two runs.
 
* Jackson Appel reached base in his first five plate appearances, notching three hits and a pair of walks. His go-ahead home run in the eighth inning was his fourth of the season and first since April 28 against Cornell.

* Carson Ozmer made his 24th appearance of the season, breaking the program's single-season record. It was previously held by Doug Brown in 2006 and Reid Terry in 2010.
 
How It Happened
Starting for the first time since April 22, Calvin Brown was tested immediately in left field as he battled a blinding sun to grab a line drive off the bat of Auburn's Chris Stanfield for the first out in the bottom of the first. After conceding a one-out single (with the runner later advancing on a wild pitch), Dromboski came back with a strikeout and groundout to end the inning.
 
Brown was tested again on a pair of flyouts in the second and third, with Dromboski setting down the side in order in the second and escaping a minor jam in the third, stranding a runner on third base with two outs.
 
In the fourth, the heart of the Quaker order got Penn on the board. Appel led off with a line-drive single that Auburn's first baseman Cooper McMurray leapt and got a piece of but could not reel in, the ball trickling into short right field. After a wild pitch advanced Appel 90 feet, Henseler roped a double to the wall in left, plating Appel. Ben Miller then moved Henseler to third with a warning track fly ball to right, but a strikeout and groundout kept Penn from putting a crooked number on the board.
 
Dromboski kept the Auburn bats and standing-room-only crowd quiet, striking out six and allowing just four baserunners through five scoreless innings, but a pair of one-out walks sandwiched around a single loaded the bases in the sixth and knocked the right-hander out after an even 100 pitches. Brian Zeldin came on in relief and conceded the tying run with a walk (the third of the inning) and the go-ahead run on a groundout, but he escaped further trouble by inducing a groundout to end the inning with two runners in scoring position.
 
Davis Baker singled to lead off the seventh, but exited with an injury and pinch-runner Drew Rogers was later caught stealing second.
 
After five straight Quakers were retired between the seventh and eighth, Palis drew a two-out walk to set the stage for Appel, who launched a two-run, opposite-field shot just over the rightfield wall, shooting Penn back out in front, 3-2.
 
Eli Trop came on and sandwiched a walk between two hit batsmen to load the bases in the eighth. With two out, Carson Ozmer came in and walked in the tying run, but stranded the bases loaded with a flyout to right to end the inning.
 
With one out in the ninth, pinch-hitter Asa Wilson singled to left and Jarrett Pokrovsky followed suit, advancing pinch-runner Cole McGonigal to second, but the Red and Blue could not push the go-ahead run across. Ozmer set down the Tigers in the bottom of the ninth, sending the game to extras.
 
With two out in the top of the 10th, Appel walked and Henseler singled him to third, but Miller flied out to right, ending the threat.

Miller remained in the middle of the action in the bottom half of the inning. After a one-out single by Auburn's Carter Wright, the Quakers first baseman snared a liner and completed an unassisted double play, sending the game to the 11th.
 
After Pokrovsky walked with one out, Ryan Taylor doubled to the deepest part of the ballpark in left-center, just beyond the reach of left fielder Chris Stanfield, scoring Pokrovsky. What followed was a small ball parade, as Seth Werchan, Brown, and Palis all bunted their way on, with Taylor and Werchan scoring on Brown's and Palis' bunts, putting Penn up 6-3.

Ozmer continued on in the bottom of the inning, retiring the side in order with two swinging strikeouts to earn the win and send the Quakers on to Saturday night.
 
Up Next
Penn will face Samford, the third seed in the Auburn regional, Saturday evening at 9 p.m. EDT/8 p.m. CDT with the winner advancing to the championship round on Sunday. The Bulldogs topped second-seeded Southern Miss, 4-2, in extra innings as well to open the regional Friday afternoon. Southern Miss and Auburn play an elimination game Saturday at 3 p.m. EDT/2 p.m. CDT.