Butler, Pa. – The Penn State Greater Allegheny Baseball Team (3-8, 0-0) faced a tough test on Sunday going up against the #4 ranked Mercyhurst Lakers in doubleheader action. PSUGA combined to collect just five hits between the two games dropping the first game 14-5 and the second game 14-0.
Mercyhurst got ahead early in game one scoring three runs in the top of the first on a two RBI triple by Drew Delsignore and a sac fly for Daniel Elliot. The Lakers would go on to score at least two runs in five of the sevem innings on the day collecting 11 hits as a whole. Their largest inning of the day came in the top of the fourth when they put up four runs on starter Matt Givler making the score 9-0.
PSUGA would see their best offensive stretch of the day in the bottom of the fourth after Zack Pollack (Cecil, Pa./Cannon-McMillan), Josh Arroyo (Tao Alta, Puerto Rico/Levvittown Baptist Academy), and Marco Lopez (Caglas, Puerto Rico/Ramey) all walked to load the bases. Zach Craven (McKeesport, Pa./McKeesport), Caleb Smith (Irwin, Pa./Norwin), and Hunter Hughes (Murraysville, Pa./Franklin Regional) followed up with walks of their own to bring the score to 9-3.
Pedro Escobar (Aguadilla, Puerto Rico/Carlos Beltran Baseball Academy) would ground into a double play that brought in another run and Adam Jacko (North Versailles, Pa./East Allegheny) followed with an RBI single to cut the deficit to 9-5 after four innings of play. However, that was the closest PSUGA would get to Mercyhurst as they responded with three runs in the top of the 5th on their way to the 14-5 victory.
Jacko continues to hit the ball well as of late going 2-4 with an RBI in game one and Pollack finished 1-3 with a walk and a run scored. PSUGA knew they needed to score more runs in game two and were looking to provide some support as their ace Daniel Daly (Glassport, Pa./South Allegheny) was taking the hill.
The day started out well for Daly as he was able to hold Mercyhurst off the board through the first two innings of play racking up three strikeouts. However, the Mercyhurst bats came to life over the final five innings of play putting up two runs in the third, fifth, and sixth and putting up four runs in the fourth and seventh innings.
PSUGA was only able to muster one hit on the day as center fielder Dylan Ernst (McKeesport, Pa./McKeesport collected his clubs only hit of the contest coming in the top of the first inning. They were retired 1, 2, 3 three times in the ball game and only had three walks on the day to account for all their base runners.
Daly finished his day going five innings giving up seven earned runs on eight hits while striking out four picking up his first loss of the season. Brett Yuhas (Munhall, Pa./Steel Valley) and Zach Schmader (South Park, Pa./South Park) combined to throw the final two innings of the game giving up six runs between them.
PSUGA is back in action with its final non-conference game of the year when they travel to Grove City to face the Wolverines in one nine inning contest. First pitch for Tuesday’s game is scheduled for 3 p.m.
