The Penn State Behrend men’s baseball team has been in full swing these past few weeks, with the team winning eight of their past eleven games. These wins have boosted the team to a 10-9 record, but despite these wins, the Lions are 1-3 in conference, leaving them at eighth in the AMCC.

 

On March 25, the Lions took both of their doubleheader games against the Waynesburg Yellow Jackets, 8-1, and then 14-5. During game one, in the bottom of the first, Waynesburg scored on a wild pitch, but that is all they would get. In the second, designated hitter John Brittner had a ground-out RBI, bringing home Mason McGuire to tie the game at one. Later that inning, Justin Foreman had an RBI single, bringing in Tanner Cicchini and giving the Lions a 2-1 lead. Two innings later, Foreman drove in another run. Later in the game, second baseman David Boehme doubled home two runs, driving in Ian Taylor and Scott Sada. In the seventh inning, with the help of a sacrifice fly and a throwing error, the Lions put up three runs to finish the 8-1 win. Alex Hajduk improved to 2-0 on the mound while striking out four, yielding only two hits and allowing no earned runs. In game two, the bats came alive, as seven Lions having at least one RBI. Sada brought home 5 RBI with 4 hits to be the Lions biggest bat. Braden Paulinellie also drove in four runs, aiding the 14-5 victory over the Yellow Jackets. Starting pitcher Phil Myers picked up his second win of the season, registering three K’s over six innings of work.

 

On March 31, the Lions ventured to La Roche, where they lost both of the matchups to the Redhawks. La Roche started out game one by scoring five runs in the first inning. The Lions started to rally back and cut the lead to two. La Roche then put up four runs to close out the game on a 9-2 loss. Brittner and Ben Ramey both had an RBI in the game, but the Lions stranded a total of six runners on base. In five innings, Jack Herzing struck out ten despite getting hit with the loss on the game. In game two, it was the Lions who jumped out to the early lead. The Redhawks had one run in the first, but the Lions responded with five runs in the second inning. The Lions held the lead until the fifth inning, where La Roche put six runs on the board with the help of a grand slam from. La Roche would go on to win 12-7. Brandon Smail fell to 1-1 on the season and struck out three in the process.

 

The Lions rebounded strongly against Bethany on April 2, winning each match-up. Myers improved to 3-1, pitching a complete game, and struck out six Bison batters. Six players on the Lions had multiple hits on the way to the Lions scoring nine runs on 13 hits. Sada had the biggest at bat of the game, with a three-run home run in the fourth inning. In game two, Hajduk improved to 3-0, pitching a complete game and striking out eight. Brittner went three for three, and Sada went 3 for 4 while he, Boehme, Ryan Hamm and Zach Murray all contributed one RBI to the win. The 6-3 win improved the Lions to 9-8 overall before taking on the Hilbert Hawks yesterday.

 

Coming into the game, Behrend had defeated the Hawks in 36 straight games, but three costly errors led to Behrend’s eventual demise. Each starter went the distance in this pitchers battle, with Herzing no-hitting the Hawks, but still receiving the loss. Boehme drove in the lone run for the Lions in the bottom of the seventh, but it was not enough to overcome the mistakes made in the front half of the inning and the Hawks won 2-1. Game two was a route, as Behrend picked up a 13-1 victory. In total, the team picked up 19 hits with Taylor and Sada tallying three and four hits, respectively. Boehme drove in three on two base knocks, while McGuire and Foreman added two RBIs a piece. Hilbert was nearly no-hit once again, as their first hit only came in the front half of the fourth on a base knock down the left field line. Hajduk improved to 4-0 on the campaign, striking out 11 and allowing only three base hits en route to the win.

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The Lions look to continue their hot stretch over the six games they have this week, despite having Sunday’s double header against Pitt-Greensburg being cancelled. The Lions will play double-headers against the conference leading Medaille College Mavericks (9-6) on Wednesday and then Alfred State (8-15) on Saturday.