AMCC Baseball Game of the Week:
Hilbert College @ Penn State Behrend
Wednesday, April 20 at 2:00pm
The Penn State Behrend (15-9, 8-2) at Hilbert College (13-13, 5-3) baseball game originally scheduled for April 20 at Hilbert has been flipped to take place on the campus of Behrend. First pitch is scheduled for 2 p.m. for the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC) Baseball Games of the Week.
The Hawks currently sit in fourth place at the halfway point of the conference season while sitting at 5-3 in league play. Through eight conference games, Hilbert is second in the league in runs scored per game (7.38) and second in team ERA (3.25). A trio of Hawks are hitting at a .400 clip in conference play. Thomas Evans (.452), Samuel Mullen (.448) and Patrick Whelan (.400) have led the offense of late. Whelan sits fourth in the AMCC in batting average on the spring (.403) and fourth in RBI (26). Mullen sits second in the league in slugging percentage (.897) in conference play, and second basemen John Riviere-Vejas leads the AMCC with 24 stolen bases. Hilbert ace Michael Contini is tied for second in the AMCC with four wins and sits fourth in ERA (3.44). Reliever Griffin McAndrews has been lights out over his four league appearances. McAndrews is 1-0 with three saves and has yet to allow a run over 11.0 innings pitched while posting a .135 batting average against.
The Lions enter with the second-best conference mark at 8-2. Zack Bowen was named AMCC Player of the Week on Monday, helping the Lions to a 5-0 week, as he hit .545 and slugged 1.091, registering eight RBIs, 13 runs and six stolen bases. Bowen moved into the conference top-5 in batting average holding an average of .402. Jeff Zick was tabbed Pitcher of the Week for his seven innings of shutout baseball in his lone start against Medaille. Zick tallied a career-high 12 strikeouts, picking up his second win of the season and continues to lead the conference with a 1.53 ERA. The Lions lead the AMCC in batting average, hitting .314 as a team.
Since 2000, the Lions have won 40-of-41 games against Hilbert. The Hawks last defeated Behrend in 2018, 2-1. The two did not meet last year and this will be the first matchup since 2019.