Tomcats Defeat Baseball 12-8

Tomcats Defeat Baseball 12-8

ERIE, Pa. – The Penn State Behrend baseball team dropped a nonconference game to Thiel 12-8 on Tuesday afternoon.

Corey Bowers (Westlake, OH/Westlake) led the way for the Lions (9-3) in the box with three hits in his four at bats. He was followed by Brandon Bergstrom (Pittsburgh, PA/North Allegheny) and Scott Sada (Saegertown, PA/Saegertown) who each had two hits.

Bergstrom, along with Brian Bohman (Erie, PA/McDowell), homered over the left center field fence in the contest. Bohman hit a two-run bomb in the bottom of the third and Bergstrom led off the home half of the sixth with a solo shot.

The Tomcats (8-3) got off to a hot start, scoring two runs on two doubles and a single. Then pitcher Riley Schwertz threw a 1-2-3 bottom half in only three pitches to stop and quick chance in getting those two runs back.

Down two in the third is when the bats seemed to start to heat up for Behrend. Zach Murray (Pittsburgh, PA/Baldwin) led the inning off with a double and Bowers followed with a single. Sada then doubled in Murray while John Hlavinka (Venetia, PA/Peters Township) followed and scored Bowers on a sacrifice fly. Then Bohman hit his home run to plate the inning's fourth run and take a 4-2 advantage.

From there, Thiel would bounce right back. They answered with four runs in the top half of the fourth and then added five big insurance runs in the top of the fifth to take an 11-5 lead.

The Lions were unable to put hits together to force a comeback, but the Bergstrom home run gave a small bright spot in the final four innings for Behrend.

Justin Rohrer (Harrisburg, PA/Central Dauphin) started the game for the Lions and picked up a no decision. Alex Hajduk (Cranberry Township, PA/Seneca Valley) picked up the loss in 3.1 strong, but tough innings.

Behrend travels to Roanoke for three games this weekend. Games one and two are doubleheaders that are scheduled for 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. Saturday.