Keystone Surges to Victory Over Lions
AUBURNDALE, Fla. – The Penn State Altoona baseball team led early in Tuesday afternoon's game against Keystone College in the RussMatt Central Florida Invitational, but the Giants powered ahead to hand the Lions a 21-7 loss at Lake Myrtle Park.
Penn State Altoona (5-4) worked its way out to a 6-2 advantage after two innings, but Keystone's (6-2) offense awoke to put up 19 runs over the next four frames to defeat the Lions in a run rule shortened game.
Corey Chamberlain (Claysburg, PA/Claysburg-Kimmel) went 2-for-2 with a pair of doubles, an RBI, a run scored, and a walk. Jonathan Rauch (Pittsburgh, PA/Baldwin) and Brian Chelli (West Hartford, CT/Hall) each had a hit and two RBI.
Sean Wing (Staten Island, NY/St. Peter's) started on the mound for Penn State Altoona and took a no decision after going three innings. Cole Suba (Pittsburgh, PA/North Allegheny) suffered the loss in an inning of relief, while Ryan Jackson (Landisville, PA/Hempfield), Caden Suba (Pittsburgh, PA/North Allegheny), and Zach Ingold (Pittsburgh, PA/Baldwin) also saw time out of the bullpen.
In the top of the first inning, Ingold led off by getting hit by a pitch, and Tyreke Green (Altoona, PA/Altoona) followed with a double to center. Rauch's RBI groundout to shortstop scored Ingold, and Chelli's fielder's choice grounder later in the inning brought home Green.
Keystone picked up a run in the bottom of the first, but Penn State Altoona came back with a four-run top of the second. With two outs, Rauch's RBI single drove in one run, before Chamberlain and Chelli hit back-to-back RBI doubles. Jake Hillard (State College, PA/State College) followed with an RBI single to center to make it 6-1.
Andy Rivas hit a solo home run for Keystone in the bottom of the second, then had a two-run single in the third to trim Penn State Altoona's lead to 6-4. In the fourth, the Giants tied the score on Jacob Yager's two RBI single to left, and Keystone tacked four more runs on to their total to end the inning with a 10-6 lead.
The Giants went on to score eight in the fifth and three in the sixth to stake out a 21-6 advantage.
Penn State Altoona added a run to its total in the top of the seventh, when Michael Labisi (Mountainside, NJ/Governor Livingston) was hit by a pitch and came around to score on a Dominic McCaffrey (Spotswood, NJ/St. John Vianney) RBI single to left.
But the inning ended with the 10-run rule activated, and Keystone scored a seven-inning victory over Penn State Altoona, 21-7.
The Lions head into their second and final off day of the week tomorrow, then return to action on Thursday, March 13, against the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth at 2:30 p.m. That single, nine-inning game will happen at Northeast Regional Park in Davenport.
