Behrend Rallies for Ninth Inning Win Versus Fredonia State

The Penn State Behrend Lions rallied in the bottom of the ninth, scoring two runs to beat the Fredonia State Blue Devils 13-12 at the Behrend baseball field on Wednesday, April 28 in a nonconference game. 

Josh Fyffe (Fredonia/Sharpsville) and Dustin Dubensky (Punxsutawney/Punxsutawney) drew back-to-back 2-out walks in the first before Ryan Geibel (East Butler/Butler) singled driving in Fyffe for a 1-0 lead.  Matt Bittner (Lancaster, NY/St. Mary's) followed with a single to center scoring Dubensky putting the blue and white up 2-0.  Harry Latta (Waterford/Ft. LeBoeuf) drew a bases loaded walk, Evan Bukowski (Washington/Trinity) singled in a run, and Jon Gray (State College/State College) singled in two more to get the Behrend Lions off to a quick 6-0 lead.

Behrend led 6-1 until the top of the third when the Blue Devils got hot at the plate.  Fredonia (18-12)  put up three runs to cut the Behrend lead to 6-4 before Fredonia slugger Rob Hermann stepped to the plate with the bases loaded.  Hermann blasted a 2-out double that drove in three runners and gave his team a 7-6 lead.  Fredonia would add one more run in the inning and take a 8-6 lead to the bottom of the third.  In the top of the fourth Fredonia loaded the bases with no outs, but Behrend reliever Zach Matthews (Rochester/Rochester) got a pop out and a double-play to get out of the jam unscathed.

Fyffe hit a 2-out solo homerun over the rightfield fence in the bottom of the fourth to cut the lead to one at 8-7.  Fredonia pushed the lead back to two with a run in the top of the fifth to make it 9-7.  Gray led off the sixth with his third single of the game, and the Behrend Lions would string together four more hits in the inning, scoring four and taking a 11-9 lead into the seventh.   The Blue Devils responded quickly, loading the bases in the top of the seventh for Dillon Lowe who tripled, giving Fredonia a 12-11 lead.

The Behrend Lions rallied in dramatic fashion in the bottom of the ninth when Bukowski singled in Ryan Kragnes (Bethel Park/Bethel Park) to tie the game at 12-12.  After Gray's sacrifice bunt moved runners to second and third, Ryan Liddle (DuBois/DuBois) singled in pinch runner Blake Pavlik (Apollo/Kiski) who beat the throw in a close play at the plate to give Behrend the 13-12 win.

Behrend (25-12, 14-4) will next travel to Frostburg State (27-9, 15-3) on Saturday, May 1 for a 1:00 p.m. doubleheader that will likely decide the AMCC regular season champion and #1 seed for the conference playoffs.