The Penn State Behrend Lions rallied in the bottom of the ninth, scoring two runs to beat the Fredonia State Blue Devils 13-12 at the Behrend baseball field on Wednesday, April 28 in a nonconference game.
Josh Fyffe (Fredonia/Sharpsville) and Dustin Dubensky (Punxsutawney/Punxsutawney) drew back-to-back 2-out walks in the first before Ryan Geibel (East Butler/Butler) singled driving in Fyffe for a 1-0 lead. Matt Bittner (Lancaster, NY/St. Mary's) followed with a single to center scoring Dubensky putting the blue and white up 2-0. Harry Latta (Waterford/Ft. LeBoeuf) drew a bases loaded walk, Evan Bukowski (Washington/Trinity) singled in a run, and Jon Gray (State College/State College) singled in two more to get the Behrend Lions off to a quick 6-0 lead.
Behrend led 6-1 until the top of the third when the Blue Devils got hot at the plate. Fredonia (18-12) put up three runs to cut the Behrend lead to 6-4 before Fredonia slugger Rob Hermann stepped to the plate with the bases loaded. Hermann blasted a 2-out double that drove in three runners and gave his team a 7-6 lead. Fredonia would add one more run in the inning and take a 8-6 lead to the bottom of the third. In the top of the fourth Fredonia loaded the bases with no outs, but Behrend reliever Zach Matthews (Rochester/Rochester) got a pop out and a double-play to get out of the jam unscathed.
Fyffe hit a 2-out solo homerun over the rightfield fence in the bottom of the fourth to cut the lead to one at 8-7. Fredonia pushed the lead back to two with a run in the top of the fifth to make it 9-7. Gray led off the sixth with his third single of the game, and the Behrend Lions would string together four more hits in the inning, scoring four and taking a 11-9 lead into the seventh. The Blue Devils responded quickly, loading the bases in the top of the seventh for Dillon Lowe who tripled, giving Fredonia a 12-11 lead.
The Behrend Lions rallied in dramatic fashion in the bottom of the ninth when Bukowski singled in Ryan Kragnes (Bethel Park/Bethel Park) to tie the game at 12-12. After Gray's sacrifice bunt moved runners to second and third, Ryan Liddle (DuBois/DuBois) singled in pinch runner Blake Pavlik (Apollo/Kiski) who beat the throw in a close play at the plate to give Behrend the 13-12 win.
Behrend (25-12, 14-4) will next travel to Frostburg State (27-9, 15-3) on Saturday, May 1 for a 1:00 p.m. doubleheader that will likely decide the AMCC regular season champion and #1 seed for the conference playoffs.
