ALTOONA, Pa. – The Penn State Altoona baseball team played its first home games of the season on Saturday afternoon, when the Lions split a doubleheader with non-conference opponent Thiel College at Stewart Athletic Field.

Penn State Altoona (6-10) came back from an early four-run deficit in game one to win it 10-4, but Thiel (3-10) got revenge in game two, when the Tomcats pulled off an 11-7 victory over the Lions.

Game One: Penn State Altoona 10, Thiel 4

Thiel got four runs across in the top of the first inning, but Penn State Altoona outscored the Tomcats 10-0 the rest of the way to earn a win.

Tyreke Green (Altoona, PA/Altoona) was 3-for-4 with three stolen bases, two RBI, and two runs scored. Aidan Donovan (Staten Island, NY/St. Peter's) was a triple shy of the cycle, going 3-for-3 with his first collegiate home run, a double, three runs scored, two RBI, and a walk.

Brian Chelli (West Hartford, CT/Hall) hit 2-for-3 with three RBI, two stolen bases, a run scored, and a walk. Alex Hlivia (Pennsylvania Furnace, PA/State College) walked twice, scored two runs, and had a stolen base.

Eric Seick (Mount Laurel, NJ/Camden Catholic) started at pitcher for the Lions and finished with a no decision after one inning on the mound. Sean Wing (Staten Island, NY/St. Peter's) finished the game and registered his third victory of the season, going six scoreless innings and striking out two batters.

Trailing 4-0 entering the bottom of the second, Donovan got the Lions on the board with his two-out solo home run to center field.

Penn State Altoona jumped ahead with a six-run fourth. After a Jimmy Mento (Gates County, NC/Gates County) walk led off the inning, Donovan doubled to score him, making it 4-2. Two batters later, Green's infield hit scored Donovan from third, and a Chelli RBI single to right knotted the score at four runs apiece. Chelli and Green scored on wild pitches, and Jake Hillard's (State College, PA/State College) sacrifice fly to center made it 7-4.

In the fifth, Donovan started the inning with a base hit to right and later came home when Green reached on an infield error. Chelli's two-run single to right boosted Penn State Altoona's lead to 10-4, and the Lions finished game one with a six-run victory.

Game Two: Thiel 11, Penn State Altoona 7

Thiel responded in game two by putting up 11 runs on 17 hits, ultimately defeating the Lions by four.

Joe O'Connor (West Grove, PA/Avon Grove) was 2-for-3 with two runs scored and a walk. Corey Chamberlain (Claysburg, PA/Claysburg-Kimmel) went 2-for-3 with an RBI and a run scored, and Hillard hit 2-for-3 with an RBI and a walk.

Zach Ingold (Pittsburgh, PA/Baldwin) hit his first home run of the season for Penn State Altoona, Fred Guarino IV (Waynesboro, PA/Waynesboro) had a pair of RBI, and Hlivia drew a trio of walks.

Eli Wiles (Kittanning, PA/Armstrong) toed the rubber for the Lions in game two and suffered the loss after going four innings. Michael Labisi (Mountainside, NJ/Governor Livingston) pitched two innings in relief, and Ryan Jackson (Landisville, PA/Hempfield) tossed a scoreless seventh.

Penn State Altoona secured an early lead by getting three runs home in the bottom of the first. Ingold led off with a home run to center, and Green doubled and later stole home to make it 2-0. One batter later, after back-to-back hits from Chamberlain and O'Connor, Guarino's RBI single to left gave the Lions a three-run advantage.

Thiel got a run in the second, then three more in the top of the third to establish a 4-3 lead over Penn State Altoona. The Lions tied the score in the bottom of the third, when Chamberlain started the frame with a base hit and later scored on a two-out RBI single to left from Harrison Knaupe (Smyrna, DE/Smyrna).

After Thiel tacked three more runs on to its total in the fourth to leap back in front, 7-4, Chamberlain's RBI single in the bottom half of the third scored Green, who led off the inning by reaching on an error, to trim the Tomcats' lead to 7-5.

The Tomcats got two in the top of the fifth to make it 9-5, then scored two more runs in the sixth to go up 11-5. Penn State Altoona got two runs back in the bottom of the sixth, after Chelli reached on an error to start the inning and O'Connor singled with one out. Hillard's RBI single scored Chelli, and a double play allowed O'Connor to come home, making it 11-7.

But that closed the scoring for the game, and Penn State Altoona was handed a four-run loss in the nightcap.

Penn State Altoona baseball returns to the road for its next games, as the Lions will travel to New York state to take on non-conference opponent Elmira College in a doubleheader on Wednesday, March 26, at 1 p.m.