Baseball Falls to Bradford in Sunday Twinbill
ALTOONA, Pa. – The Penn State Altoona baseball team resumed its Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference schedule at home Sunday afternoon, when the Lions lost both ends of a doubleheader with league opponent Pitt-Bradford at Stewart Athletic Field.
Pitt-Bradford (6-13, 2-2 AMCC) came back to win game one by a score of 7-5, then conquered Penn State Altoona (9-11, 0-4 AMCC) by a 10-3 score in game two.
Game One: Pitt-Bradford 7, Penn State Altoona 5
After three scoreless innings to start the game, Penn State Altoona worked its way out to a 5-2 advantage through four. But Pitt-Bradford scored five unanswered runs after that to come back and hand the Lions a two-run loss.
At the plate, three Lion hitters had a two-hit day. Jarek Szaflarski (Greencastle, PA/Greencastle-Antrim) was 2-for-3 with a run scored, Aidan Donovan (Staten Island, NY/St. Peter's) was 2-for-4 with a run scored, and Zach Ingold (Pittsburgh, PA/Baldwin) was 2-for-4 with his first home run of the season.
Brian Chelli (West Hartford, CT/Hall) hit his third home run of the season and had three RBI, two stolen bases, and one walk.
Andrew Crouse (Mercersburg, PA/James Buchanan) took the mound for game one and finished with a no-decision, as the right-hander went 4 1/3 innings, yielded four earned runs, and struck out four batters. Sean Wing (Staten Island, NY/St. Peter's) tossed 2 2/3 innings out of the bullpen and suffered the loss while striking out four.
With the game scoreless in the top of the fourth, Pitt-Bradford drew first blood on RBI singles from Noah Avey and Trent Bielak.
But Penn State Altoona responded by putting five runs on the board in the bottom half of the fourth. Ingold's solo homer to right and Judd Dasso's (Brentwood, TN/Brentwood) RBI single to left tied the score at 2-2, and Chelli blasted a three-run homer over the right-field fence later in the frame to put the Lions ahead, 5-2.
However, the Panthers came back with three runs in the top of the fifth to knot the score at 5-5. Aidan Zimmerman's RBI double and Mallicke Metcalf's RBI single made it a one-run game before Trent Bielak was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to bring the score even.
The Panthers reclaimed the lead on Metcalf's two-run single up the middle in the sixth, and Pitt-Bradford held the fort the rest of the way to deal Penn State Altoona a 7-5 loss.
Game Two: Pitt-Bradford 10, Penn State Altoona 3
The Panthers built a 9-0 advantage through seven-and-a-half innings before Penn State Altoona got on the board, and Pitt-Bradford cruised for a seven-run victory over the Lions.
Devin Colón (Staten Island, NY/Moore Catholic) was 2-for-4 with the bat, while Owen Dombrosky (Hollidaysburg, PA/Bishop Guilfoyle) and Szaflarski each had a double. Chelli, Dasso, and Rauch finished with one RBI apiece, with Rauch also hitting his fifth home run of the season.
Eric Seick (Mount Laurel, NJ/Camden Catholic) started game two on the rubber and took the loss after pitching 4 2/3 innings. Michael Tedrick (Plum, PA/Plum) worked three innings in relief with three strikeouts, and Daniel Ditterline (Collegeville, PA/Spring-Ford) went 1 1/3 innings with two strikeouts to finish the game.
Alex Colwell's RBI single to center opened the scoring for Pitt-Bradford in the top of the third, and Logan McConnell's three-run double to center increased the visitors' lead to 4-0 by the end of the inning.
In the fifth, McConnell hit an RBI single and Bielak scored on a wild pitch to give the Panthers a 6-0 advantage. Colwell's three-run home run to left in the eighth made it 9-0.
Penn State Altoona made it 9-1 in the bottom of the eighth on Rauch's solo homer to left center, but the Panthers got that run back in the top of the ninth on a Zimmerman RBI hit to right.
The Lions battled to the end, picking up two more runs in the bottom of the ninth on Dasso's sacrifice fly to center and Chelli's run-scoring groundout to second.
Penn State Altoona is back at home on Wednesday, April 1, hosting nearby AMCC opponent Mount Aloysius College for a single, 9-inning game. First pitch is scheduled for 3 p.m.
