The Penn State Behrend Lions could do little wrong as they hosted the Franciscan Barons on Saturday, April 24 at the Behrend field. The blue and white scored a combined 33 runs in a two game sweep of the Barons.
In game one, the Behrend Lions would threaten early in the first inning as Josh Fyffe (Fredonia/Sharpsville) doubled to the right center gap and Dustin Dubensky (Punxsutawney/Punxsutawney) would follow with a walk but the blue and white could not push a run across. That would change in the second as Rich Doyle (Pittsburgh/North Allegheny) would find his way to second and an infield single by Ryan Kragnes (Bethel Park/Bethel Park) would score Doyle to make it 1-0. Jon Gray (State College/State College) would hit a ball to first base which was misshandled and allowed Kragnes to score from third to make it 2-0 in favor of Behrend.
The blue and white would really bust it open in the fourth as Kragnes was on third once again and a throwing error by the catcher back to the pitcher allowed him to cross the plate for the second time in the game. Another throwing error this time by the Barons third basemen provided two more runs for the blue and white and make the score 5-0. Gray and Fyffe would also cross the plate in the fourth to put the Behrend Lions up 7-0 at that point. Fyffe would come up big again as he sent a three-run blast over the left field wall in the bottom of the fifth to make it 10-0. Harry Latta (Waterford/Fort LeBoeuf) would finish the Behrend scoring with a solo shot in the sixth for a 13-1 advantage. Starting pitcher Steve Miller (Union City/Union City) threw five innings, allowing zero runs to pick up his fifth win of the year.
Game two saw the Behrend Lions score run after run and pound out hit after hit en route to a final score of 20-1. Starting pitcher Ryan Jacobs (Port Vue/South Allegheny) would set the tone early as he struck out the side in the first and brought the Behrend Lions' bats to the plate. Three hits in the first inning coming from Fyffe, Gray and Dubensky led to an early 3-0 advantage and momentum heading into the later innings. The Behrend Lions third inning lasted almost an hour as they put up 10 runs and almost batted through the order twice. the highlight of the inning came in the form of a grand slam by freshman Matt Bittner (Lancaster/St.Mary's) to put the Behrend Lions up 14-0 at that point. The blue and white stretched the lead to an amazing 19-0 score with three hits coming in the fourth to put up another five runs. Franciscan finally got their first hit of the game in the fifth and got their first run later in the inning. James Verona (Murrysville/Franklin Regional) would finish the Behrend scoring with a home run over the left field wall in the sixth and leave the score at 20-1. Jacobs would toss five innings, allow only three hits and record eight strikeouts to pick up another win on the season.
With the win, the blue and white improve to 12-4 in the AMCC and 22-12 overall on the year. Next up will be a road conference matchup with D'Youville on Tuesday, April 27.
