BEHREND BASEBALL SEASON ENDS AT HANDS OF NO. 2/18 KEYSTONE

The No. 3 Penn State Behrend baseball team finished 1-2 in the NCAA Division III Regional Tournament, picking up a dominate 14-3 victory over No. 4 Manchester University and falling 11-5 to No. 2/18 Keystone College on Saturday.

 

Game One: Penn State Behrend 14, Manchester 3

 

Behrend scored and had the leadoff batter reach base in all but two innings on Saturday against Manchester. The Lions got the bats going early with a leadoff double from Silvio Ionadi and RBI single from Dylan Barnes in the first inning. Barnes drove in two more runs in the second inning with a two-out two-run single. The Lions took a 6-0 lead in the third, capitalizing on a pair of Manchester errors and an RBI triple off the bat of David Gibson. The Spartans tallied their first two runs of the game in the top of the fourth. Senior Daniel Boehme was able to get those two runs back for Behrend with a two-run home run to left center in the bottom half of the inning, his first long ball of the season. Joel Kennedy cut Manchester's deficit to five (8-3) with an RBI single in the top of the fifth inning. In the bottom of the fifth, Gibson greeted Spartans reliever Arturo Casas with a leadoff homer, which was his first round-tripper of the year. Ionadi continued the scoring in the inning with a double down the left field line to plate Tyler Burick and give the Lions a 10-3 advantage. Boehme hit another two-run shot in the seventh inning and Jacob Wessel delivered a two-run single to help secure Behrend's 31st overall victory and marking the first collegiate multi-homer game for Boehme. Starter Colin Bolla tied his career-high in strikeouts with 12, tossing 8.2 innings with seven hits and three earned runs en route to his seventh win of the season. Junior Ethan Tinker struck out the lone hitter he faced in the ninth on five pitches to end the game. Eight of the nine Lions in the lineup notched a hit with seven players registering two or more hits. Gibson led the way with his first four-hit contest of his career, finishing 4-for-5 with two runs batted in. Along with Boehme's two homers, the senior first baseman had three hits and a game-high four RBI. Wessel recorded his first career three-hit contest, while also driving in two runners. Barnes was the final Lion to tally multiple RBIs with three to go along with a pair of hits. As a team, Behrend tied its season-high with 20 hits in the 14-run effort. 

The Lions have now won an NCAA Tournament game in four of their last five appearances, dating back to 2010. This also marks the second straight year with a regional win with the last one being a 10-4 victory at Baldwin Wallace last May.