ALTOONA, Pa. – After winning game one of the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC) Championships, 7-6, the Penn State Behrend baseball team dropped game two, 8-7, and turned over the title of AMCC Champs after holding it for three years.
In a double elimination format, the third-place Lions (27-11) came in to the Championship series with a pair of wins and one loss from top-seeded Altoona who is 2-0. Altoona would have liked to send Behrend home in the first try but those plans were spoiled when the Behrend Lions took game one 7-6 in 13 innings.
The Lions pitching staff, Chad Zurat, Jay Condit, and Andy Kountz, did a great job limiting Altoona to half as many runs as they inflected on Behrend, Friday in a 12-2 blowout. Kountz earned the win after coming in to spell Condit in the 11th inning. Zurat started the game, went for 6.2 innings, gave up two runs, and struck out 10 batters.
The Lions took the lead at the top of the 13th inning scoring four runs on five hits en route to the 7-6 victory. The inning which featured four singles, was started by Harry Latta and ended with a Matt Bittner RBI single through the left side.
Altoona came up short in the bottom of the 13th. Needing four runs to tie, Behrend forced a game two by holding the Altoona Lions to only three runs in their final chance.
Altoona proved to be too much for the Lions (27-12) in game two and went on to win 8-7. Behrend watched Altoona build a 5-0 in the first two innings.
The Lions finally got on the board at the top of the third by posting two runs, but gave up another to Altoona in their ensuing appearance, 6-2 after three.
Behrend found themselves down one run in the ninth, thanks to a three-run fifth and a two-run eighth inning. The Lions chance for its fourth AMCC title in as many years was stripped away by Altoona's relief pitcher, Conner in the ninth and final inning. Conner forced a pop up and two ground balls to seal the deal, 8-7.
Seven different pitchers enter the lineup for Behrend, Blake Pavlik was credited with the loss after throwing for only two outs in the first inning.
