ALTOONA, Pa. – The Penn State Altoona baseball team played its second doubleheader in as many days, as the Lions returned home on Monday afternoon to face non-conference opponent Penn College for a pair of games at Stewart Athletic Field.

Penn State Altoona (12-16) ran up a big lead early in game one and held on for a 12-7 victory, while Penn College (14-13) overpowered the Lions in game two to prevail by a score of 11-2.

Game One: Penn State Altoona 12, Penn College 7

Penn State Altoona staked out an 8-0 lead through four innings, then fended off Penn College to ultimately win by five.

Zach Ingold (Pittsburgh, PA/Baldwin) went 3-for-4 with his fourth home run of the season, three RBI, and two runs scored. Brian Chelli (West Hartford, CT/Hall) was 2-for-3 with his second homer of the year, four RBI, two runs scored, and a walk. Tyreke Green (Altoona, PA/Altoona) finished 2-for-4 with a double, two runs scored, and a stolen base.

Carter Piercey (West Chester, PA/Bayard Rustin) started at pitcher and went four innings to pick up his second win of the season, recording a pair of strikeouts along the way. Ryan Jackson (Landisville, PA/Hempfield) tossed the final three frames and struck out three batters to register his first collegiate save.

Penn State Altoona plated four runs in the bottom of the first. Green led off with an infield single, and Chelli drew a one-out walk to put two runners on base. Corey Chamberlain (Claysburg, PA/Claysburg-Kimmel) reached on an error in the next at-bat, allowing Green to score, and Ingold's RBI single to left center made it 2-0. After a groundout and a walk, Chamberlain and Ingold both scored when Kyle Latham (Milton, GA/Cambridge) reached on a fielding error to give the Lions a 4-0 advantage.

In the second, Green started the frame with a double, stole third, and scored on a Jake Hillard (State College, PA/State College) RBI single to center. Chelli followed with a two-run shot over the right-field fence to make it 7-0.

Ingold's two-out RBI single to right in the fourth brought Hillard home from third, and Penn State Altoona took an 8-0 advantage into the fifth.

Penn College countered with five runs in the top of the fifth inning to trim its deficit to 8-5, but Penn State Altoona added three more runs to its total in the bottom half of the fifth. Justin Bisel (Julian, PA/Bald Eagle) led off with a walk and later scored on a passed ball, and later in the frame, Chelli's two-run double to right-center field boosted the Lions' advantage to 11-5.

The Wildcats made it a four-run game in the top of the sixth on a Matt Munoz two-RBI double to left, but an Ingold solo homer to right center in the bottom half of the inning got a run back for the Lions, and Penn State Altoona finished game one with a 12-7 victory.

Game Two: Penn College 11, Penn State Altoona 2

The Wildcats got a steady offensive output, scoring in all but one inning, while holding Penn State Altoona to just two runs.

At the plate, Bisel went 2-for-3 with a run scored, and Hillard hit his third home run of the season. The Lions also got one hit apiece from Green, Vincent Lear (Mount Union, PA/Mount Union), James St. Laurent-Friend (Wake Forest, NC/Wake Forest), Dominic McCaffrey (Spotswood, NJ/St. John Vianney), and Harrison Knaupe (Smyrna, DE/Smyrna).

Caden Suba (Pittsburgh, PA/North Allegheny) got the ball for game two and pitched three innings, struck out four batters, and was saddled with the loss. Brycen Flinton (Denver, PA/Cocalico) tossed three innings in relief, and Eli Wiles (Kittanning, PA/Armstrong) pitched a scoreless seventh, striking out the side.

Penn College started the game by grabbing the lead, thanks to Anthony Turek's two-run single to left center in the top of the first inning. But the Lions answered with a run in the bottom of the first, when Hillard took the Wildcats' starter deep with a solo homer to right, cutting Penn State Altoona's deficit to 2-1.

The guests tacked two more runs on to their total in the top of the second, as an Ethan Stahl sacrifice fly brought in one run and an errant throw on a failed pickoff attempt allowed another to come home.

Penn College boosted its lead to 6-1 in the top of the third when Turek scored on a throwing error and Brandon Shane drove in another run with a double. Kevin Cute's two-run double in the top of the fourth set the Wildcats' advantage at 8-1.

Penn State Altoona picked up a run in the bottom half of the fourth. With two outs, Bisel and McCaffrey kept the inning alive with back-to-back hits, and Knaupe followed with a single through the right side to score Bisel, making it 8-2.

But Penn College got that run back in the top of the fifth, when Parker White swiped third base and scored on a throwing error to put his team's lead at 9-2. In the sixth, Turek's two-run homer to right got the Wildcats to an 11-2 advantage, and Penn College went on to defeat the Lions by the same score.

Next, the Penn State Altoona baseball team will host Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference foe Pitt-Greensburg in a doubleheader on Thursday, April 17, at 1 p.m.