WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. – Penn College hosted Penn State Abington Tuesday afternoon in a rescheduled NEAC baseball doubleheader. The Wildcats took the first game, 3-2, in extra innings, but Abington won the second game, 10-3, when the weather caused the game to finish early after the seventh inning. Penn College improved to 8-19 overall, 5-6 NEAC, while the Nittany Lions jumped to 16-14, 9-2.
In Game One,
Penn State Abington reached the scoreboard first by taking a 1-0 lead after the first inning. But Penn College responded when
Colton Riley reached base on a walk and advanced to third on two following sacrifice bunts from the Wildcats. Sam Zeigler drilled a ground ball to third base to score Riley to tie the game 1-1.
Both teams went scoreless in the third inning and the Lions struck again scoring one run in the fourth. Penn College again had an answer when the bats got hot in the fifth inning started by a Zeigler single to left field.
Jacob Carles followed with another single and advanced Zeigler to second base. Next,
Brittan Kittle drove a shot to left field to score Zeigler and tie the game 2-2.
Neither team was able to cross home plate in the sixth and seventh innings to cause the game to go into extra innings. Abington came close with runners on second base and third base, but pitcher
Nathan Holt held strong to end the top of the eighth inning with a strike out. With the momentum favoring the Wildcats, the leadoff hitter,
Alex Flicker, in smacked a single to center field in the bottom of the eighth inning. Head Coach
Chris Howard immediately chose
Christian Perna to pinch run for Flicker, and was followed by a sacrifice bunt from
Richard Lennon to advance Perna to second base. After Riley was intentionally walked to put runners on first and second base,
Cole Hofmann stepped up and ripped a shot to center field to score Perna on a walk off RBI single to get the win for the Wildcats.
Hofmann had the game winning RBI and went 1-3 from the plate, followed by Zeigler who went 1-3 at-bat with 1 run and 1 RBI.
Nathan Holt (3-4) went the distance against the Nittany Lions and came out on top with the victory by striking out 8 batters and allowing 2 runs (0 earned) with only 1 walk.
In Game Two,
The Wildcats aimed to keep the momentum going in the second game by taking a 1-0 lead after the first inning when
Alex Flicker singled to center field to bring in
Alex Zelger. Then both teams' defenses had strong stances to hold the offense at bay with scoreless innings in the second and third.
Penn State Abington would be next by taking a 2-1 lead after the top of the fourth inning. Penn College would answer in the bottom of the fourth started by a massive leadoff double from
Richard Lennon. After a
Colton Riley walk, Cole Hoffmann drilled a single to left field to put runners on second and third base. After a double play and now with two outs,
Christian Perna ripped a double to left field to score 2 RBIs for the Wildcats to take a 3-2 lead after four innings.
The weather took a turn for the worse as rained swept over Williamsport. Abington took advantage by adding 3 runs in the fifth inning and 5 runs in the seventh inning. With a 10-3 lead and very wet field conditions, the game was called with Abington taking the win.
Penn College's offense was led by Perna who went 2-3 at-bat with 2 RBI's and followed by Zelger who went 2-3 at-bat with 1 run.
Devon Sanders (1-4) took the loss on the mound for the Wildcats by allowing 5 runs (2 earned) and 5 hits while striking out 5 batters faced.
Penn College travels to the Nation's Capital to face Gallaudet University in a NEAC doubleheader on Saturday, April 27
th, starting at 1:00pm.
