The Penn State Behrend Lions outslugged the Thiel Tomcats on Thursday, April 15 by a score of 17-11. Behrend played host to the non-conference Tomcats and managed to come away victorious for their third straight win.
The Tomcats got on the board first as they collected three hits in the top of the first and scored a run on a Jake Thomas single to take an early 1-0 lead. Behrend would come right back in the bottom of the inning with four runs of their own. Josh Fyffe (Fredonia/Sharpsville) would single to left side and eventually get to second by a stolen base. Dustin Dubensky (Punxsutawney/Punxsutawney) would come up next and drive Fyffe home with a single to tie the game at one. Dubensky would later score when Geoff Lang (Pittsburgh/North Allegheny) reached on an error by the third baseman. The blue and white finished their scoring with a two-run double by junior Harry Latta (Waterford/Fort LeBoeuf) to make it 4-1 in favor of Behrend.
The Behrend Lions would explode in the bottom of the third as they pushed across six runs and seemed to put the game out of reach. Ryan Liddle (DuBois/DuBois) would provide an RBI single and Jon Gray (State College/State College) would come up with the bases loaded and sent a blast over the right field wall for a grand slam and a 10-2 Behrend lead. The Tomcats would not go away, however, as they put up three runs in the fourth inning on one hit and pushed across four more in the fifth to see the Behrend lead cut to only one at 10-9. The Behrend Lions would answer in the bottom of the fifth as Fyffe would add another RBI base hit and the blue and white were leading by three at 12-9. Liddle would provide a two RBI single in the bottom of the eighth as Behrend was in control at 17-9. Thiel would put two more runs on the board in the last inning, but Behrend pitcher Jay Condit (Cranberry, Twp/Seneca Valley), who closed out the game, would make sure that was it and the blue and white went on to earn the 17-11 victory.
With the win, the blue and white improve to 18-9 overall and remain at the top of the AMCC standings at 8-2. The Tomcats drop their overall record to 11-14 on the season. Up next for the Behrend Lions will a road conference matchup with the Mount Aloysius Mounties on Saturday, April 17.
