MT. ALOYSIUS AND PITT-GREENSBURG ADVANCE TO CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND

The first round of the 2015 AMCC baseball championship tournament has come to an end, with #3 Mt. Aloysius and #4 Pitt-Greensburg advancing to the championship round.

Mt. Aloysius 2, Medaille 0
Mt. Aloysius and Medaille split during the regular season, but it was Mt. Aloysius who got the sweep when it mattered the most. In Game 1, Mount Aloysius took an early lead in the bottom of the first.  After a triple by the leadoff man, junior Ian Helsel, sophomore Bryn Brown hit a sacrifice fly to give the Mounties an early 1-0 lead. The Mavericks then threatened in the top of the third. Senior Jake Tyno and junior Travis Chavanne singled with one out to put runners at the corners, but Medaille could not capitalize. Mount Aloysius tacked on a single run in their half of the fifth inning.  Helsel singled and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt. Junior Connor Bowie singled and stole second to put runners at second and third with one out. Sophomore Benjamin Legath singled to drive in Helsel and give the Mounties a 2-0 lead, which would be the final score.

Mt. Aloysius 5, Medaille 0
Mount Aloysius jumped out again early in Game two. Bowie hit a two-run homerun in the first inning to take a quick 2-0 lead. The Mounties doubled their lead in the bottom of the third.  Legath singled with the bases loaded to drive in two more runs for Mount Aloysius and put them ahead 4-0. Mount Aloysius added an unearned run in the bottom of the sixth to push their lead to five runs (5-0) and set the final score.

Pitt-Greensburg 11, Pitt-Bradford 9
Pitt-Greensburg junior Matt Moyer scored the first run of the game when the Bobcats had runners on second and third and the next two batters got hit by pitches. The Panthers would answer with a run in the top of the second when senior Ethan Showers scored on a fielder's choice to tie the game 1-1. A big bottom of the second would put UPG up 5-1.  Three walks would load the bases, which would prompt junior Anthony Bozzuto's two-run double that scored a pair of UPG runs. Senior Chad Jacob's RBI double would bring in the fourth run, followed by junior Tyler Lilja's walk two batters later that scored the fifth Bobcat run. Bradford would once again answer with a run in the top of third when senior Kody Johnston doubled to left field, scoring freshman Jay Clinger to tighten the gap at 5-2. The Bobcats would add another in the bottom of the fourth, thanks to a Lilja sacrifice fly that brought in Jacob for a 6-2 score. Bradford got busy in the top of the fifth and took over the lead, helped by a pair of homeruns by freshman Dalton Renn and senior Connor Borowski that put the visitors up 7-6. Their lead would be short-lived with a Bozzuto one run single and a junior Matt Germanoski RBI double recapturing the lead at 8-7 in favor of UPG. The sixth inning would see Pitt-Bradford plate a pair of runs by sophomore Matthew Sompel and Renn to move ahead 9-8. That lead was once again short-lived with a trio of Bobcat runs in the bottom of the sixth, when sophomore Dylan Pounds, senior Anthony Maroadi, and freshman Mike Parlak all scored, to give UPG the 11-9 advantage. 

Pitt-Greensburg 16, Pitt-Bradford 0
After back-and-forth lead changes in game one, Pitt-Greensburg left no doubt on the field with a commanding 16-0 win over Pitt-Bradford in game two. A Jacob one run double in the bottom of the first would give the Bobcats an early 1-0 lead.  They would follow with a four run second, then a five run fourth to amass a 10-0 advantage. Six more runs in the fifth would put things out of reach as Pitt-Greensburg now sat atop an insurmountable 16-0 lead. Junior pitcher Brandon Rowland was nearly unhittable in the lopsided victory.  He pitched all seven innings, holding the Panthers scoreless and allowing four hits with no walks.  He would also pick up nine strikeouts, as he improved his overall record to 5-3 and dropped his ERA to 1.91 on the year.

Both Mt. Aloysius and Pitt-Greensburg will advance to the championship round hosted by La Roche College, May 8-10. The Mounties will take on #2 Penn St. Behrend on Friday at 1:00 p.m., with Pitt-Greensburg and #1 La Roche to follow at 4:00 p.m.