ERIE, Pa. – The Penn State Behrend baseball team defeated Pitt-Greensburg 9-3 in their first game of the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC) Championship Tournament on Thursday afternoon.
The Lions (28-10) jumped out to an early lead and never looked back en route to knocking off the Bobcats for third time this season.
In the first, Ryan Kragnes (Bethel Park, PA/Bethel Park) jumpstarted the offense with a leadoff walk. John Hlavinka (Venetia, PA/Peters Township) was next to hit and executed a perfect hit-and-run to get Kragnes to third. Matt Bittner (Lancaster, NY/St. Mary's) drove in Kragnes on a sacrifice fly and in no time Behrend was leading, 1-0. Vinny Rice (Harmony, PA/Seneca Valley) also came through for the Lions with a two-out RBI double to increase the advantage to two.
After putting a single run on the board in the third, the Lions erupted for five runs on seven hits in the fourth. Kragnes plated the first Behrend run with an RBI double down the left field line. Following a Hlavinka walk, the Lions got four straight RBI singles from Evan Bukowski (Washington, PA/Trinity), Bittner, Rice, and Corey Bowers (Westlake, OH/Westlake).
Pitt-Greensburg finally got on the board with a run in the fifth and two unearned runs in the seventh, but it was too little too late for the Bobcats.
Junior Dante DeSantis (DuBois, PA/DuBois Central Catholic) earned the win on the mound for Behrend. DeSantis threw all nine innings, allowing just one earned run to go with 10 strikeouts.
Hlavinka had a great day at the plate, recording three hits in three at bats while also scoring four runs. Rice contributed three hits as well to go with three RBIs.
The Lions will be back on the diamond tomorrow at 11 a.m. for a game against Mount Aloysius. The Mounties defeated La Roche 3-0 in the tournament's opening game.