Myrtle Beach, SC – The Penn State Greater Allegheny Baseball Team (3-4, 0-0) fell behind early on Friday night and were unable to complete the comeback falling to John Wood Community College 9-4. The loss gave PSUGA a split of their six games played at the Cal Ripken Experience in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina where they went 3-3.
Luke Padezan (Elizabeth, Pa./Elizabeth Forward) made his second start of the season and got hit around early on giving up four runs in the first inning. After striking out the first batter he faced, Padezan gave up back-to-back one out doubles to get John Wood CC on the board. He would then hit the next two batters before giving up a two RBI single and a fielder’s choice that allowed three more runs to score before the inning came to an end.
PSUGA would respond right away in the bottom half of the first with a run of their own courtesy of a RBI single by Josh Arroyo (Tao Alta, Puerto Rico/Levittown Baptist Academy) that scored Adam Jacko (North Versailles, Pa./East Allegheny). The bottom of the second saw PSUGA cut the score to within one on an RBI single by Dylan Ernst (McKeesport, Pa./McKeesport) and a throwing error on the same play that brought home Marcos Lopez (Caglas, Puerto Rico/Ramey).
PSUGA would only score one other run in the game when Arroyo brought home Zack Pollack (Cecil, Pa./Cannon-McMillan) on a sacrifice fly that at that time brought the score to 6-4. A great relief outing by John Wood’s Colton Blanchard would shut down the offense for the rest of the day as he allowed just one run in four innings of work.
Padezan would settle in nicely after the rough first inning putting up scoreless second and third innings before giving up two runs in the fourth inning and two more in the sixth bringing his day to an end. In total, Padezan went six innings giving up eight runs on nine hits while walking four and striking out eight. Zack Schamder (South Park, Pa./South Park) would come in to throw the final inning giving up just one run on one hit.
Arroyo finished the day 1-2 with 2 RBI and 2 hit by pitches to reach base three times on the day. Ernst picked up the only other RBI for PSUGA on the day going 1-4 and driving in his team leading ninth RBI of the season.
After going just 1-4 in five games in Myrtle Beach last season, PSUGA baseball has gotten off to a much better start going 3-3 in their six games at the Cal Ripken experience. They have seen strong offensive showings from Pedro Escobar (Agaudilla, Puerto Rico/Carlos Beltran Baseball Academy) and Pollack who are each hitting over .400 sitting at .476 and .409 respectively.
PSUGA Baseball will have a quick turn-around getting right back to action on Sunday when they will take on Westmoreland County Community College in doubleheader action starting at 11 a.m. It will be played at Pullman Park in Butler County Pa. located at 100 Pullman Park Place.
