ERIE, Pa. – The Penn State Behrend baseball team opened Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC) play with a pair of wins over Pitt-Greensburg, winning 5-0 in game one and getting a 6-5 10-inning victory in the nightcap for the sweep.
Game One:
Score: Penn State Behrend 5, Pitt-Greensburg 0
Records: Penn State Behrend (8-2, 1-0 AMCC), Pitt-Greensburg (1-10, 0-1 AMCC)
Key Moments:
* The Lions relied on hurler and starter Thomas Zbezinski (Gibsonia, PA/Pine-Richland) to get their first shutout of the season
* Zbezinski went the distance and threw a six-hit shutout while fanning eight for his second win of the season
* Behrend had a big first inning with four runs on six hits to take a commanding lead
* Anthony Slate (Hopewell, PA/Hopewell), batting second, singled to right field and advanced to second on a wild pitch
* Josh Wagner (South Park, PA/South Park) knocked in slate from second with a single to right field
* Juston Jones (Moon Township, PA/Moon) was hit by a pitch before Wagner scored on a Zack Bowen (Pittsburgh, PA/Serra Catholic) RBI double to center field
* Jones and Bowen made it 4-0 on Isaac Stouffer's (Punxsutawney, PA/Punxsutawney) single to shortstop
* Behrend added another run in the fifth for the final margin
* Colin Harger (Pittsburgh, PA/Shaler) went 2-for-4 with a double
Game Two:
Score: Penn State Behrend 6, Pitt-Greensburg 5 (10)
Records: Penn State Behrend (9-2, 2-0 AMCC), Pitt-Greensburg (1-11, 0-2 AMCC)
Key Moments:
* In another wild 10 inning game, junior catcher Jacob Deitz (Erie, PA/McDowell) hit a sacrifice bunt that turned error to score Harger in the bottom of frame to break a 5-all tie
* The Lions played extra baseball in game two for the second doubleheader in a row
* Lead-off batter Harger doubled down the left-field line in the top of the 10th and then came home on the error by the pitcher on Deitz bunt
* Deitz, looking to advance Harger to third, got more than he bargained for when his bunt was not fielded cleanly and the throw to first missed the mark to allow Harger to score
* The teams battled through four scoreless innings before getting on the board
* The Bobcats scored first with three runs in the fifth and the Lions were able to add two in the bottom of the frame
* Another run in the sixth put Pitt-Greensburg ahead by two runs but the Behrend tied it with a pair of unearned runs
* Derrick Shields (Waterford, PA/Fort LeBoeuf) managed five strikeouts in 5.2 innings of work in the start
* Reliever Jeff Zick (Moon, PA/Lady of the Sacred Heart) recorded the win, allowing one earned run
* The Lions had five players with two hits each
* Greensburg's Tony Iannuzzo started and pitched 6.1 innings before Mikey Sullivan completed the game for the loss
Up Next:
* Behrend returns to action on Wednesday, April 7 at Pitt-Bradford for an AMCC doubleheader. First pitch is 1 p.m.
