ERIE, Pa. – The Penn State Behrend baseball team won twice on Wednesday afternoon in an Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC) doubleheader against Medaille at the Behrend Diamond.
The Lions took game one 14-0 behind six shutout innings from starting pitcher Chad Zurat (Clearfield, PA/Clearfield). The junior struck out five and allowed just three hits to earn his fifth win of the season.
Zurat was backed by an explosive Behrend offense that struck early and often. In the first, Jordan Weinzierl (St. Mary's, PA/St. Mary's) and John Hlavinka (Venetia, PA/Peters Township) each scored on a Mavericks error and Ryan Finnegan (Fombell, PA/Riverside) came through with a sac fly to make it 3-0 Lions after one.
Behrend broke it open the following inning on Hlavinka's RBI double, Nathan Junk's (Cabot, PA/Knoch) RBI single, and Tommy Kocur's (Erie, PA/McDowell) bases loaded walk. After two, the score was 8-0. In the third, Finnegan and Junk each drilled run-scoring singles, and Finnegan came home on an error, giving the Lions an 11-run lead.
But Behrend wasn't done, as Alex Margraf (Erie, PA/McDowell) plated Matt Wolczko (Apollo, PA/Kiski) on an RBI single in the fourth, and Eric Wehler (St. Mary's, PA/Elk County Catholic) ripped a two-run single in the sixth to cap off the scoring.
Andrew Quiggle (Erie, PA/Collegiate Academy-Central Tech) pitched a scoreless seventh for the Lions to preserve the 14-0 victory.
The second game saw Behrend (19-11, 7-3 AMCC) reel off 19 hits in a 14-2 win over the Mavericks.
Once again, the Lions struck in the first inning. Margraf scored Hlavinka on a sacrifice fly, and with two outs, Finnegan drilled an RBI double to make it 2-0 after one. Behrend put up a six-spot in the second thanks in large part to Hlavinka's RBI single and Brandon Bergstrom's (Pittsburgh, PA/North Allegheny) two-run double.
In the third, Margraf plated Brian Bohman (Erie, PA/McDowell) on a fielder's choice, and Junk came through with a two-out, two-run single to make the score 11-0 in favor of the Lions. Medaille (11-18, 3-9) came back with their only two runs of the day in the top of the fourth, but Behrend responded in the fifth. Junk sent Margraf home on a sac fly, and Taylor Overby (Nazareth, Pa/Bethlehem Catholic) then hit an RBI double to left-center to help the Lions regain their 11-run cushion.
Casey Kern's (Monroeville, PA/Gateway) sixth inning RBI single proved to be the final run of the game, as Behrend went on to win, 14-2.
Dante DeSantis (DuBois, PA/DuBois Central Catholic) earned his team-leading sixth win for the Lions, striking out two in five innings of work. Tyler Geer (Waterford, PA/Fort LeBoeuf) was nearly flawless in relief, striking out three while allowing just one hit in two scoreless frames.
Behrend will travel to take on Hilbert for a doubleheader on Thursday, April 24 beginning at 2 p.m.