Lions Advance to ECAC Championship

DOVER, DE – The Penn State Behrend baseball team defeated Penn State Abington 8-1 on Saturday afternoon in the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference (ECAC) South Region Tournament semi-finals.

Dante DeSantis (DuBois, PA/DuBois Central Catholic) led the way on the bump, shutting down the Abington bats with 12 strikeouts.

Both teams started slow with the game tied at 1-all through five innings.  The tables turned in the sixth and seventh with the Lions (28-15-1) pushing seven runs across in the two innings.

Evan Bukowski (Washington, PA/Trinity) got things started for Behrend with an RBI triple.  On the very next pitch, Matt Bittner (Lancaster, NY/St. Mary's) followed with a sacrifice fly to give the Lions a 3-1 lead.

In the seventh, Behrend scored five runs with two outs to take all the momentum.  Tommy Kocur (Erie, PA/McDowell) smashed a two-run double for the Lions' first two runs.  Following a Ryan Kragnes (Bethel Park, PA/Bethel Park) walk, Bukowski drove in a run in his second straight at bat.  Bittner kept the inning alive with another RBI on a single to left field.  When the inning finally ended, Behrend held an 8-1 lead.

DeSantis did not need much though, allowing just four hits and only one run.  The sophomore hurler struck out at least one batter in eight of the nine innings.

Bukowski's two hits led the offense.  Bittner, Kocur, and Bukowski each drove in two.

The Lions will play Wesley tomorrow for the ECAC South Region Championship at noon in Dover, Delaware.