ALTOONA, Pa. – The Penn State Altoona baseball team posted its first Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference doubleheader sweep of the season on Sunday afternoon, when the Lions defeated visiting league opponent Pitt-Bradford in a pair of games at Stewart Athletic Field.

Penn State Altoona (11-12, 3-3 AMCC) pulled out a 4-2 victory in the first game, then used a big offensive performance to topple Pitt-Bradford (9-17, 2-4 AMCC) 21-5 in a run rule-shortened game two.

Game One: Penn State Altoona 4, Pitt-Bradford 2

Pitt-Bradford scored the day's first runs in the top of the fourth, but Penn State Altoona was able to even the score with two of their own in the bottom half of the inning. The Lions jumped ahead thanks to a two-run fifth inning, and the home team finished with a two-run victory over the Panthers.

Eli Wiles (Kittanning, PA/Armstrong) started on the mound and registered his first win of the season. The right-hander went six innings and held Pitt-Bradford to two runs on four hits and a pair of walks, and he struck out three batters. Corey Chamberlain (Claysburg, PA/Claysburg-Kimmel) recorded all three outs in the seventh inning to pick up his seventh save of the season.

At the plate, four different Lion hitters had a multi-hit game. Jake Hillard (State College, PA/State College) led the way by going 3-for-4 with a double and a run scored, and Alex Hlivia (Pennsylvania Furnace, PA/State College) and Zach Ingold (Pittsburgh, PA/Baldwin) were both 2-for-3 with a run scored. Grayson McClain (Mount Union, PA/Mount Union) was 2-for-4 with one run batted in.

Chamberlain hit his second home run of the season and finished with two RBI, two walks, and a run scored.

Pitt-Bradford scored a pair of runs in the top of the fourth to take the first lead of the game. Evan Fragela's RBI single up the middle plated the first run, and Noah Avey's run-scoring infield hit later in the frame gave the Panthers a 2-0 advantage.

Penn State Altoona answered with two runs in the bottom of the fourth to tie the score at 2-2. Ingold led off with a single, and two outs later, he scored on a throwing error after a Hlivia base hit for the Lions' first run. The next batter, McClain, delivered an RBI single up the middle to knot the score at two runs apiece.

The home team quickly took its first lead of the afternoon in the bottom of the fifth. Hillard started the inning with a single to center, and Chamberlain followed with a two-run homer to right to put Penn State Altoona in front, 4-2.

The Lions forced Pitt-Bradford to strand a runner in each of the final two innings, and Penn State Altoona clinched a game-one victory.

Game Two: Penn State Altoona 21, Pitt-Bradford 5 (Final/7 innings)

The Lions broke out the bats in game two, totaling 19 hits and producing 21 runs, with five different hitters having two or more hits. Penn State Altoona exploded for 13 runs in the bottom of the first inning to nab a commanding lead early in the game.

Jonathan Rauch (Pittsburgh, PA/Baldwin) was a perfect 4-for-4 with his first and second home runs of the season, four RBI, and two runs scored. McClain finished 4-for-5 with a double, three RBI, and three runs scored, and Tyreke Green (Altoona, PA/Altoona) went 3-for-4 with two runs scored, two stolen bases, one RBI, and a walk.

Hillard hit 2-for-5 with his second home run of the season, three RBI, and a run scored. Jimmy Mento (Corapeake, NC/Gates County) was 2-for-2 with a double, two RBI, and a run scored.

On the hill, Sam Homan (Altoona, PA/Bishop Guilfoyle) got the start and posted his second win of the season. In five innings, the left-hander yielded two earned runs and struck out four batters.

Cole Brechbill (Hagerstown, MD/North Hagerstown) tossed a scoreless sixth inning out of the bullpen, and Mack Meengs (State College, PA/State College) finished the game by pitching the seventh inning and striking out a pair.

Penn State Altoona sent 17 batters to the plate in the bottom of the first, when the Lions put 13 runs on the board, scoring 12 of them with two outs. McClain led off with a single, stole second, and scored on a throwing error in the next at-bat. After a groundout and fly out, Rauch hit a two-run homer to center to make it 3-0. A Pitt-Bradford outfield error in the next at-bat kept the inning alive, and Mento followed that with an RBI single to left. Another error by the Panthers allowed Mento to score, and Pitt-Bradford's fourth error of the frame let Aidan Donovan (Staten Island, NY/St. Peter's) later come home. McClain's RBI double to left and Green's RBI single to center preceded a two-run home run to center by Hillard, extending the Lions' lead to 10-0. One batter later, Rauch blasted his second home run of the inning, a two-run shot over the right-field fence. Mento's RBI double to center capped the scoring in the frame, and Penn State Altoona headed into the second with a 13-0 lead.

Pitt-Bradford got on the board in the top of the third inning, when RBI singles from Avey and Blake Prestash, along with a throwing error, led to three runs scoring for the Panthers.

Penn State Altoona got a run back in the bottom half of the third, courtesy of Donovan's two-out RBI double to left.

In the fifth, back-to-back two-run singles by Hlivia and McClain put Penn State Altoona's lead at 18-3, and Hillard's two-out RBI single to center gave the Lions a 16-run cushion.

Penn State Altoona scored twice more in the sixth, thanks to a Tristan Holland (Pittsburgh, PA/Shaler) sacrifice fly and a Tyler Gordon (Pottstown, PA/Owen J. Roberts) RBI infield single that made it 21-3.

Pitt-Bradford got a pinch-hit, two-run home run from Justin Smulik in the top of the seventh, but Penn State Altoona held its lead to end the game early via the run rule.

Penn State Altoona baseball hits the road for its next games, as the Lions will travel to Westmoreland County to face AMCC opponent Pitt-Greensburg this Tuesday, April 16, in a doubleheader starting at 1 p.m.