Baseball Drops a Pair of Non-Conference Games to Hood

By: Frank Maira, Assistant Director of Athletics/Sports Information Director

Mont Alto, Pa. – Originally scheduled for March 10 but postponed until Wednesday, April 19, the Penn State Mont Alto baseball team hosted Hood College for a doubleheader. The Blazers came out victorious in both games, winning 13-1 in a rain soaked game one and earned the sweep in the nightcap with a 12-5 score.

Hood College 13, Penn State Mont Alto 1 (F)

• Joe Garrish kept the Blazers off the board in the first two innings, but the visitors bats came alive and they scored two in the third, four in the fourth, three in the fifth inning and added four more insurance runs in the top of the sixth. Garish gave up 10 hits and was charged with giving up six earned runs. Justin Duble came in as a relief pitcher and struck out a pair of batters, but was credited with giving up four runs.
• The Lions were sloppy in the field partly because of the weather as they had four errors.
• Cory Chatfield and Brady Topper each had doubles as part of the eight Penn State Mont Alto hits.
• The Lions pushed across their lone run of the game in the bottom of the third. Chatfield led off the inning with a double down the leftfield line and scored on a Matt Taylor single.

• Penn State Mont Alto (8-21-1, 4-5 PSUAC) struck first notching a run in the bottom of the first inning. Tanner Rhoads singled up the middle, stole second, advanced to third on a Jeremiah Younker walk and scored on a Brady Topper sacrifice fly. However, the lead was short lived as the Blazers scored in the top of the second inning making it 1-1 on a RBI triple from Drake Friend.
• Hood College did most of its damage in the top of the third scoring nine runs on six hits as it built a 10-1, before adding another two runs in the fourth inning.
• Cole Bower took the loss on mound as he gave up 10 earned runs on 10 hits. Clark Payne made his third relief appearance of the season and tossed three scoreless frames, which lowered his season ERA to 4.76. Cory Chatfield also recorded his first colligate inning on the mound in the top of the seventh.
• The Lions closed out the game on a high note scoring a pair of runs in the sixth and seventh innings. In the bottom of the sixth, Joel Clabaugh ripped a two-RBI double splitting the outfielders, which scored Colby Black and Tyler Martin. In the seventh inning Nicholas Malone drew an RBI walk and Colby Black recorded his ninth RBI of the season on a fielders choice.

Penn State Mont Alto returns to action on Saturday as it squares off with Penn State York in a PSUAC crossover doubleheader. Both games will be played at Peoples Bank Park, which is home of Independent League squad York Revolution. First pitch is slated for 1 p.m.