Baseball Splits Series Finale With Beaver

Tarentum, PA. - The Penn State Greater Allegheny Baseball team (10-13, 5-7) split their season finale with Penn State Beaver on Saturday dropping the first game 6-4 and coming back to win the finale 9-6. The offense came through for PSUGA but Beaver's offense was just a little bit better on this day.

After Beaver got out to a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first of game one, PSUGA responded in the top of the second. After Brian Koglin (Fox Chapel, PA./Fox Chapel HS) was hit by a pitch and Brett Yuhas (Munhall, PA./Steel Valley HS) doubled with one out Diego Marzan (Toa Alta, Puerto Rico/Leadership Christian Academy) came through  with a 2 RBI single to put them in front 2-1.

It was Marzan who came through once again in the very next inning slapping a single scoring Koglin for his third RBI of the day to make it a 3-1 game. Hunter Hughes (Murrysville, PA./Franklin Regional HS) came up next and brought home Yuhas on an RBI single and PSUGA found themselves ahead 4-1.

However, Beaver's offense would come alive scoring five runs in the bottom of the fourth. They took advantage of three PSUGA errors in the inning and took the lead from PSUGA 6-4. PSUGA failed to add on as starter Scott Hughes settled in and Beaver won 6-4.

Marzan led the offense going 2-2 with three RBI continuing his offensive tear in the second half of his freshman season. Bert Hinton (Richmond, VA./Benedictine College Prep) pitched pretty well going 6.0 inninfs giving up six runs, one earned, on eight hits while walking three.

After a loss in game one of the day, PSUGA was put in a must win situation in the second game as they tried to keep their Penn State University Athletic Conference playoff hopes alive. They were able to do just that picking up a 9-6 come from behind win to slavage a game in the three game series.

PSUGA got on the board first thanks to some hustle on the base paths. After Koglin and Blake Flocker (McKeesport, PA./McKeesport HS) got on base with one out. Hughes would then lay down a sacrifice bunt and both Koglin and Flocker would come around to score to give his team a 2-0 lead. However, Beaver answered with a four spot in the bottom of the inning and PSUGA found themselves behind again 4-2.

They added another run in the fourth when Koglin came around to score on an error, but Beaver scored one in the fifth to make it a 5-3 game heading into the seventh. That is when the PSUGA offense would come alive with one out in the top of the seventh. Three straight RBI singles by Pedro Escobar (Aguadilla, Puerto Rico/Carlos Beltran Baseball academy), Dylan Ernst (McKeesport, PA./McKeesport HS) and Yuhas put PSUGA in front 6-5.

Two more errors in the inning would help PSUGA increase the lead to 9-5 and, despite Beaver putting up a run in the bottom half of the inning, it wasn't enough as PSUGA picked up the 9-6 win. Ernst led the way going 2-4 with two RBI and reached base in both games to extend his on-base streak to 19 straight games. And Koglin added a 2-2 day in the win.

PSUGA now moves to 5-7 in PSUAC play and sits in fourth place in the PSUAC West Division one game behind PSU-Fayette. In order to make the tournament they will have to at least oick up a series victory over New Ken and get some help from Fayette.

The PSUGA Baseball team ks back in action on Tuesday when they take on Grove City in their final non-conference play. First pirch is scheduled for 3 p.m.