It was the Jets and the Sharksbattling for Eastern League turf in high stirrups. The war clubs came out and the ball never rested. The war clubs let loose and the Soldiers Field basepaths never settled. And when time and the fates finally called a halt to this nine-inning diamond joust, 28 hits had fallen, 20 runs had scored, and Harvard had beaten Penn yesterday, 11-9, with a final inning choreographed by Jerome Robbins and written by Horatio Alger.

Tied 9-9 after eight-and-a-half innings, reserve outfielder Billy Blood walked with one out in the ninth. Leadoff batter Bobby Kelley stroked a double play-bound ball to shortstop, but Blood left no survivors and no relay throw as he upended Penn second baseman Steve Criscuolo before the latter could get the ball over to first.

Blood's crackback block ("I had to clear him up," he said afterwards.) left a man on first and two outs before sophomore Chuck Marshall poled a 2-0 offering deep over the left field fence to give the Crimson a gutsy triumph over the then league-leading Quakers. Penn had entered the contest with a 5-0-1 record in the EIBL.

"I'll tell you the truth--I was trying to take it deep, "Marshall said after the game. "It was 2-and-0 and I was thinking fastball, and you really can't get hurt taking a rip when you're ahead. I just didn't want to pop out," he added.

Marshall now leads the Crimson in homers with two, including a couple of guys named Stenhouse and Bingham, who were on deck and in the hole, respectively, when he popped the Getty Goner in the ninth.

The Bill Murray "Somebody stop this storybook ending!" finale would not have been possible without the unconscious comeback stick work of the less-than-peaceful Quakers. Harvard had quashed a 6-6 tie in the eighth with three runs to five starter Larry Brown the cushion he needed for the final inning.

But Penn's Panser Division. Dennis Karbach and Tom Olszak, touched Brown for back-to-back homers and re-knotted the score at nine. Two batters later Mike Derle ripped a single off Brown, the 15th hit that the senior captain had yielded in the contest, and forced Ron Stewart in from the bullpen. Stewart got the final out of the ninth and, consequently, the win to even his record at 2-2.

Brown's outing on the mound progressed from a self-indulgent start to a rather paranoid finish. The all-American held Penn scoreless through the first four frames and retired 13 consecutive batters without a hit before the Quakers notched four with two outs in the fifth.

The fact that Harvard had outscored Penn 6-0 after four innings was probably the thing that took the edge off the usually competitive hurler.

"I just got lazy. I had three or four of their guys 1-and-2 and I got my pitches up a little and they clocked me," said a disappointed Brown. "I can't be happy with the way I pitched, but I'm really proud of the team. This is the biggest game we've had in two years. It would have been a long, long season if we had lost," he added.

The Big Tilt was indeed won, and with the kind of aggressive, crisp attack that hadn't been seen in almost a year. There were three crucial double plays in the field, restless offense against a team that hits for a living, but most importantly, the realization that victory isn't impossible if the ace hurler can't hand it to you.

It would seem now that momentum has been fueled by success, the conquered "turf" fertilized by euphoria

THE NOTEBOOK: The Penn players were all using the same aluminum bat yesterday. Hmmmmmmmm.... Bingham (4 RBIs), Jim Peccerillo (3 RBIs), and Charlie Santos-Buch (2 RBIs) each had three hits to pace the Crimson.

Penn's star outfielder Tom Olszak sent out a ten-page resume to each of the 28 major league teams this winter. Needless to say, he's majoring in marketing. at Soldiers Field PENN  AB  R  H  BI Cicatiello, cf  5  2  4  2 Karbach, 3b  5  1  1  2 Olszak, rf  5  1  1  1 Gaskill, If, 1b  3  1  0  0 Derle, 1b  5  0  3  0 Yotts, pr  0  0  0  0 Tannish, If  0  0  0  0 Rom, dh  4  1  2  0 Keefer, ss  5  1  2  1 Sinnegan, c  4  1  1  0 Criscuolo, 2b  4  1  1  3 Totals  40  9  15  9 HARVARD Kelley, 2b  4  2  0  0 Marshall, If-c  4  2  2  2 Stenhouse, rf  2  3  1  0 Bingham, 1b  4  2  3  4 Peccerillo, dh  5  0  3  3 Santos-Buch, cf  4  0  3  2 Pearce, 3b  4  0  0  0 St. John, ss  5  0  0  0 Warth, c  2  1  1  0 Tilles, ph  0  0  0  0 Bowles, pr  0  1  0  0 Blood, If  0  0  0  0 Totals  34  11  13  11 Penn  000  040  113-9 HARVARD  202  200  032-11