Penn State Behrend Baseball Drops Non-Conference Matchup to Allegheny

The Penn State Behrend Lions fell to the Allegheny Gators in a non-conference home matchup on Tuesday, April 20.  The blue and white dropped the game by a score of 8 to 6 for the second loss to the Gators this season.

The Behrend Lions jumped out to an early lead as Josh Fyffe (Fredonia/Sharpsville) singled then advanced his way to second.  Dustin Dubensky (Punxsutawney/Punxsutawney) then would add to his RBI total (49) with a single of his own to drive Fyffe in and create an early 1-0 advantage for the blue and white.  Allegheny broke through for four runs in the top of the third as they managed to collect four straight hits to start the inning.  Ben Lowmaster would drive in two runs with a single and Jeff Dassner would add another run on an RBI single through the left side.  The Gators would tack on one more run and they now had a 4-1 lead.

Ryan Liddle (DuBois/DuBois) would get one of those runs back on an RBI single to score Geoff Lang (Pittsburgh/North Allegheny) and cut the lead to 4-2.  The sixth inning was the most damaging to the Behrend Lions as the Gators would put up the rest of their runs and take a lead which they wouldn't let slip away.  They had bases loaded with one out when Eric Hansen singled up the middle to score two runs and make a 6-2 ballgame.  Lowmaster would come up big again as he provided another two-run single and put the Gators up by six at 8-2.  Behrend would not go away easily as they mounted a comeback starting with a Jon Gray (State College/State College) RBI single and a Lang RBI single to cut the lead to four at 8-4.  In the bottom of the seventh, Dubensky reached on an error and back-to-back singles by freshmen Vinny Rice (Harmony/Seneca Valley) and Evan Bukowski (Washington/Trinity) drove in two runs and made the score 8-6.  The Behrend Lions could not capitalize on opportunities late in contest and the final score ended up being 8-6 in favor of the Gators.

With the loss, the blue and white see their record drop to 19-11 overall and remain 9-3 in the AMCC.  Allgheny improves their record to 20-9 overall and 2-0 against the Behrend Lions this season.  Up next for Behrend will be a home conference doubleheaderwith the Medaille Mavericks on Wednesday, April 21.  Behrend will stay at home as they will host the Franciscan Barons in another AMCC doubleheader on Saturday, April 24.