Both series in the first round of the AMCC baseball tournament saw significant upsets by #5 Pitt-Bradford and #6 Mount Aloysius College, both of whom will be advancing to the championship round this weekend at #1 La Roche College.
Pitt-Bradford 18, Penn State Altoona 3
Penn State Altoons 12, Pitt-Bradford 8
Pitt Bradford 10, Penn State Altoona 0
After splitting the double-header on Sunday, Pitt-Bradford entered Monday's game ready to play and eager to advance to the AMCC championship bracket for the first time since 2012. In the rubber match, sophomore pitcher Ryan Boyer tossed eight scoreless innings, while junior outfielder Tim Brown drove in four runs, and the Pitt-Bradford baseball team blanked Penn State Atloona 10-0 to win its AMCC tournament opening-round series, 2-1.
Boyer continued his late-season emergence as the team's ace, dropping his ERA to 2.88 with his second straight start of eight scoreless frames. He gave up seven hits, walked three and struck out seven.
Pitt-Bradford went ahead 4-0 in the fourth inning. Brown remained hot at the plate, delivering a two-out two-run single, and a pair of Lion errors allowed two more runners to cross home. Brown added another two-run base hit in the fifth, junior first baseman Brody Wood walked with bases loaded, and sophomore catcher Austin Parent chipped in with a RBI sacrifice fly to stretch the lead to 8-0. Junior infielder Jay Clinger doubled in a run in the sixth, and he scored on Parent's base hit through the left-side of the infield to cap the scoring. The Lions threatened in their half of the sixth, but Boyer induced a pair of pop-ups to strand two runners. Senior Abe Frech pitched a scoreless ninth inning, recording a pair of strikeouts, to close out the series.
Brown finished with three more hits and batted a team-leading .643 with seven RBIs in three games against Penn State Altoona. He had driven in just three runs in his previous 17 contests. Clinger totaled three hits and three runs, and Dalton Renn and Brock Blovsky each scored twice.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mount Aloysius 7, Pitt-Greensburg 3
Mount Aloysius 16, Pitt-Greensburg 6
In game one against the Bobcats, Mountie starting pitcher Tyghe Bowers went the full seven innings and limited Pitt-Greensburg to three earned runs while striking out five.
The Mounties jumped out to a 2-0 lead in their first at-bat when senior first baseman Kyle Droz drove a double into the gap that scored sophomore Matthew McCourt and junior infielder TJ Wardwell. Mount Aloysius led 3-2 heading into the sixth inning when the visitors scored four runs beginning with a Vincent Jacob bunt single that brought in sophomore infielder Daniel Singer. Two batters later, junior Dalton Garlock singled to score sophomore infielder Trevor Miller, and McCourt then came up clutch with a single that scored two more to make it 7-2. Bowers allowed one run in Greensburg's final at-bat before earning the victory.
McCourt went 3-for-4 with two RBI's and two runs scored in game one to lead Mount Aloysius.
In game two, the Mountie bats again wasted little time getting going as Mount Aloysius scored eight runs in the second inning to take command of the ballgame. Jacob, Garlock and junior Chase Miller provided timely hits with RBI singles in the inning. The visitors added six runs in the fourth inning highlighted by a three-run home run from Jacob that increased the lead to 14-0 before scoring two more in the sixth to make it a 16-0 game. Pitt-Greensburg scored runs in each of their last four at-bats off Creek Miller but it wasn't enough to prevent the two-game sweep.
Miller threw a complete nine innings in game two and struck out four. Offensively, eight different Mounties recorded hits in the game.