ERIE, Pa. – The Penn State Behrend baseball team posted 1-0 and 5-1 victories over Alfred State in Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC) action on Saturday afternoon.
Noteworthy:
* Junior pitcher Thomas Zbezinski (Gibsonia, PA/Pine Richland) registered his 100th strikeout in game one
* On the day, Zbezinski and game-two starter Derrick Shields (Waterford, PA/Fort LeBeouf) both went the distance, combining for 17 strikeouts, four walks, five hits and one run
* Behrend had a strikeout in 13 of the 15 innings, including 11 straight
* With the pair of wins, the Lions move into third place in the AMCC standings
* The Lions take their two-game win streak on the road at Oberlin (1-5) tomorrow
Game One:
Score: Penn State Behrend 1, Alfred State 0
Records: Penn State Behrend (14-7, 6-3 AMCC), Alfred State (12-15, 6-3 AMCC)
Key Moments:
* Colin Harger (Pittsburgh, PA/Shaler) scored the game-winning run in the bottom of the eighth
* Harger led off the inning with a double to center field and advanced to third on a wild pitch
* Harger was just the third runner to get to third base for the Lions in game one
* Zach Bowen (Pittsburgh, PA/Serra Catholic) hit a sacrifice bunt in front of the pitchers mound to send in Harger off third
* Alfred State's Josh Laurie made the throw to home, but Harger tagged in time to get Bowen the RBI on the fielder's choice sacrifice bunt to score the game winner in extra innings
* Zbezinski threw the complete game for his fourth win of the season
* Zbezinski started the first inning with three straight punchouts and ended with 10 K's to get to 100 for his career
* In the pitcher's duel, the scoreboard read one hit and one error through four innings
Game Two:
Score: Penn State Behrend 5, Alfred State 1
Records: Penn State Behrend (15-7, 7-3 AMCC), Alfred State (12-16, 6-4 AMCC)
Key Moments:
* After eight scoreless innings, the Pioneers got a run in the first inning with two outs showing
* Behrend took the lead for good in the bottom of the second inning with three runs on four hits
* With bases loaded, Jacob Deitz (Erie, PA/McDowell) grounded out to score Juston Jones (Moon Township, PA/Moon)
* Bowen had a two-RBI single through the left side to get Tanner Cicchini (Pittsburgh, PA/Upper St. Clair) and Isaac Stouffer (Punxsutawney, PA / Punxsutawney) home for a 3-1 lead
* The Lions secured the win, adding two more runs in the bottom of the fourth inning
* The Harger/Bowen lineup went to work again with Harger starting the inning with a single and Bowen knocking him in with a double to left center
* Bowen made it 5-1 with a run off Braden Paulinellie's (DuBois, PA/DuBois) sacrifice fly to right field
* Shields improves to 4-0 on the mound and finished with seven strikeouts, allowing two hits and one run
Up Next:
* Behrend returns to action tomorrow at non-conference Oberlin for two games. The doubleheader begins at 12 p.m.
