ALFRED, N.Y. – Penn State Altoona baseball suffered a pair of losses to Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference opponent Alfred State College on Saturday afternoon at Pioneer Field.

In its first AMCC contests of the season, the Lions (2-6, 0-2 AMCC) lost 6-4 in game one and 3-1 in game two.

Game One: Alfred State 6, Penn State Altoona 4

Penn State Altoona held a narrow 4-3 lead heading into the bottom of the sixth inning, but Alfred State (3-8, 2-0 AMCC) put together a three-run inning to defeat the Lions in the first game of the twinbill.

Jared Ennis (Richboro, PA/Council Rock South) was 2-for-3 with a double, a run scored, and a team-high three runs batted in. Hunter Breon (Boiling Springs, PA/Boiling Springs) went 2-for-3 with two runs scored and a walk, and Grayson McClain (Mount Union, PA/Mount Union) was 2-for-2 with a double, a run scored, and a walk. Jake Hillard (State College, PA/State College) finished 1-for-3 with an RBI.

Tyler Manger (Lindenhurst, NY/Lindenhurst) started on the mound for the Lions, pitching 5 2/3 innings and yielding six runs while striking out three. Hunter Johnson (Shippensburg, PA/Shippensburg) tossed a scoreless 1/3 inning out of the bullpen.

Ennis' sacrifice fly to center in the top of the first inning got Penn State Altoona on the board, but the Pioneers struck back in the bottom of the first when Justin LoTemple's two-run home run to left-center got the home team on top. LoTemple added a sac fly in the fifth to make it 3-1.

The Lions reclaimed the lead with a three-run top of the sixth, getting a two-run double to left from Ennis and an RBI single to right by Hillard to leap ahead 4-3.

But Alfred State answered with three runs of their own in the bottom half of the inning, as Ryan Santiago's two-run single to left and Connor Pingitore's run-scoring single to shortstop made it 6-4.

Penn State Altoona got the tying run on base in the top of the seventh with two outs, as McClain's double and Ennis' single set the table. But the Lions were unable to cash in, and Alfred State clinched the game one win.

Game Two: Alfred State 3, Penn State Altoona 1

The Lions struggled to come up with the big hit in game two, stranding 11 baserunners in a two-run loss.

Timothy Richard (Douglassville, PA/Daniel Boone) and Adam Wildasin (Hershey, PA/Hershey) were each 2-for-4 for Penn State Altoona, with one of Wildasin's hits being a double. Breon finished 2-for-5 with a double, Catcher Cumming (Altoona, PA/Altoona) was 1-for-3 with a run scored, and Richard Carey (Milton, DE/Cape Henlopen) was 1-for-4 with his team's lone RBI.

Alex Kitko (Houtzdale, PA/Moshannon Valley) started on the mound and was saddled with the loss. In 5 2/3 innings of work, the righty gave up one earned run while striking out four Alfred State batters. Kyle Glass (Imler, PA/Claysburg-Kimmel) tossed 2 1/3 scoreless innings out of the bullpen, surrendering just one hit and one run while striking out three.

RBI hits from Mike Gibson and Jack Henby in the second and third innings got Alfred State out to a 2-0 lead. Penn State Altoona cut its deficit in half in the top of the fourth, when Cumming led off the frame with a single and later scored on Carey's groundout to shortstop.

But the Pioneers tacked a run on to their total in the bottom of the fifth, when Henby's two-out RBI single to left extended the home team's lead to 3-1.

Next, Penn State Altoona baseball will travel to face Pitt-Greensburg in a doubleheader on Tuesday, March 30 at 1:00 p.m. Although Pitt-Greensburg is an AMCC opponent, Tuesday's doubleheader will be classified as non-conference.