Baseball Upsets Behrend in AMCC Tourney Opener
ALFRED, N.Y. – The number six seed Penn State Altoona baseball team staged its second consecutive postseason upset on Thursday, when the Lions knocked off second-seeded Penn State Behrend 11-9 in day one of the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference Tournament's championship rounds, hosted by Alfred State College at Pioneer Field.
Penn State Altoona (18-25) ran up a big lead early, then held on to defeat Penn State Behrend (20-17) for the first time this season, after the Lions suffered a tightly contested doubleheader sweep at the hands of Behrend during the regular season.
With the win, Penn State Altoona will face five seed Hilbert College – which earned a win over top seed Alfred State today – tomorrow, Friday, May 12, at 1 p.m. during day two of the AMCC championship rounds.
Penn State Altoona was propelled to victory by its starting pitching, as Eli Wiles (Kittanning, PA/Armstrong) threw six strong innings to earn his third victory of the year. The right-hander allowed only one run while scattering seven hits, walking three, and striking out five Behrend batters.
Cameron Dubbs (Palmyra, PA/Palmyra) and Sean Wing (Staten Island, NY/St. Peter's) pitched one inning each in relief. Alex Kitko (Houtzdale, PA/Moshannon Valley) recorded the game's final out with a strikeout, earning his fifth save of the season.
With the bats, five different Penn State Altoona hitters recorded a multi-hit game.
Jake Hillard (State College, PA/State College) was 3-for-5 with two runs batted in, one run scored, and one walk, and Zach Ingold (Pittsburgh, PA/Baldwin) was also 3-for-5 with a triple and four RBI.
Richard Carey (Milton, DE/Cape Henlopen) finished 2-for-4 with two doubles, two runs scored, and a walk. Garrett Alauzen (Pittsburgh, PA/Chartiers Valley) was 2-for-5 with a double, two runs scored, and an RBI, and Alex Hlivia (Pennsylvania Furnace, PA/State College) was also 2-for-5 with two runs scored and an RBI.
Penn State Altoona scored two runs in the tops of the second and third innings to earn a 4-0 advantage.
In the second, the Lions capitalized with two outs to score the game's first runs. After Carey led off with a double and Hlivia singled to left, Hillard's two-out single to left put Penn State Altoona on the board. Ingold followed with an RBI single to left center, making it 2-0.
In the third, Penn State Altoona opened the frame with a walk by Corey Chamberlain (Claysburg, PA/Claysburg-Kimmel), then scored a run on Alauzen's double down the left field line. Alauzen scored on a wild pitch later in the inning, and the Lions took a 4-0 lead.
Penn State Altoona increased its lead to nine runs with a five-run top of the fifth. With one out, Alauzen singled, Carey doubled, and Grant Barberich (Leesburg, VA/Heritage) drew a walk to load the bases. Hlivia followed with an RBI base hit to right, and one batter later, Hillard drew a bases-loaded walk to bring home Carey. With the bases still juiced, Ingold cleared them with a triple to center, making it 9-0.
Behrend got on the board in the bottom of the fifth on Chase Palmer's RBI double to left center.
Penn State Altoona padded its lead in the top of the eighth. Chamberlain's RBI double to left drove in one run, and he scored on an error during the next at-bat to make it 11-1.
Behrend got four runs across in the bottom of the eighth to cut its deficit to six. John Berger's RBI single and Zac Bogats' two-run double got the Behrend Lions to four runs, and an Isaac Stouffer RBI double made it 11-5.
Behrend made things interesting in the bottom of the ninth, scoring four more runs while bringing the potential tying run to the plate. With two outs, Bogats' two-run double to left and Silvio Ionadi's two RBI base hit to center cut the Penn State Altoona lead to 11-9. But with one on and two outs, Kitko struck out the next batter to end the game and seal a win for the Lions.
