Lions Split With Saint Vincent

LATROBE, Pa. – On Saturday afternoon, the Penn State Behrend baseball team split a non-conference doubleheader with Saint Vincent.  The Bearcats defeated the Lions 6-5 in game one before Behrend bounced back to take game two, 9-2.

The Lions (25-11-1) jumped out early in the first after Ryan Kragnes (Bethel Park, PA/Bethel Park) came around to score after leading the game off with a walk.  After Saint Vincent put up two in the second and third, Behrend came back with two of their own in the fourth.  Both Evan Bukowski (Washington, PA/Trinity) and Matt Bittner (Lancaster, NY/St. Mary's) hit RBI singles.

The Bearcats answered though with another two runs in the fourth and were now leading 6-4.  After two scoreless innings, the Lions were down to their final three outs.  Jay Condit (Cranberry Township, PA/Seneca Valley) ripped an RBI single to right field, but that would be all Behrend would get, falling 6-5.

In game two, the Lions used a huge sixth inning to get the split.

With the score tied at 2-all in the sixth, Behrend pushed across six runs to take all the momentum.  Joe Paterniti (Jamestown, NY/Jamestown) got the Lions started with an RBI double.  Kragnes kept it going with another run scoring hit.  After a Bittner sacrifice fly, Casey Kern (Monroeville, PA/Gateway) and Ryan Finnegan (Fombell, PA/Riverside) each got in on the action with RBI singles as well.

Chad Zurat (Clearfield, PA/Clearfield) picked up the win with 2.1 innings of scoreless relief.  Ryan Jacobs (Port Vue, PA/South Alleghany) started on the mound for Behrend, allowing just two runs while striking out nine hitters in 4.2 innings.

Bukowski led the Lions in game one with three hits.  Both Finnegan and Paterniti had three hits in game two.