(Note:  Since this story was posted, Penn clinched the regular season crown as Mount Mercy lost to Clarke 9-4 Tuesday night.)

Oskaloosa--Destiny left the Penn baseball team's hands Tuesday night as the Statesmen were unable to win the league title outright in falling 5-2 to Ashford in Midwest Collegiate Conference action Tuesday.

Due to schedule changes since Sunday, contrary to what was reported, Penn has not yet clinched a share of the MCC crown. The team will now play the waiting game to see if it is the #1 or #2 seed in the MCC Tournament later this week.

With the loss, Penn (32-15, 17-6 MCC) still holds just a one game lead over Mount Mercy for the MCC title. The Mustangs (15-6) can win the crown if they win all three of their remaining games, including a game against Clarke tonight and two more against Grand View Wednesday. One loss by Mount Mercy, however, will give the Statesmen the title outright.

The Statesmen never really got going on Senior Day as 13 seniors were recognized before the game.

The visiting Saints struck first with three runs in the second inning and two more in the third to take a 5-0 lead.

Penn finally got on the board when Eddie Sobczak (Jr., University Place, Wash., Skagit Valley CC) homered over the right field fence, a two-run shot that also scored Alex Chavez (Sr., Culver City, Calif., LA Harbor CC). The roundtripper is the eighth of the year for Sobczak.

Unfortunately, that was all she wrote for either team as the pitchers took over, highlighted by an incredible relief outing by Joey Grant (Sr., Soquel, Calif., College of San Mateo). The senior shut out Ashford (11-31, 4-20 MCC) on one hit over six innings. He struck out a career-high 14 batters and retired 16 batters in a row to close the game. Grant struck out the side in the sixth and ninth frames and had two strikeouts in each of the other four innings in which he pitched.

The strikeout tally ties the most for a Penn pitcher in a single game since 1999.

Grant relieved starter Tim Waters (Sr., Marysville, Wash., Everett CC), who went three innings and took the loss to fall to 2-1 on the season.

The performance was for naught, however, as Penn was limited to six hits on the afternoon. Statesmen players also reached base five times on Ashford errors and walked three times, but were unable to come all the way around to score as Penn left ten on base.

Chavez led the offense with a 2-5 performance, while Sobczak was 1-3 with two RBIs and a run scored. Steven Schultze (Sr., Simi Valley, Calif., LA Mission CC) and Matt Casey (Sr., Palmdale, Calif., Antelope Valley CC) also had one base hit as well.