After being down early, the Penn State Greater Allegheny Baseball team (5-2, 0-0) put up five runs in the fourth inning to complete a come from behind 10-5 victory over Nassau Community College on Friday. The win secured PSUGA a winning record over their five games in Myrtle Beach and brings them home with a steady 5-2 mark on the season.
Friday marked the first time this season that PSUGA did not score first in a game. After both teams were held off the board in the first inning, Nassau CC would break through on a bit by pitch after they loaded the bases with three straight singles to take a 1-0 lead. They would then rattle off four straight RBI singles and extended their lead to 5-0 with still just one out in the inning.
Matt Givler (Coatesville, PA./Coatesville HS) would then come in from the bullpen and stop the bleeding rolling a 1-6-3 double play and keeping the deficit at 5-0. The PSUGA bats would go to work the next half inning after Brian Koglin (Fox Chapel, PA./Fox Chapel HS) reached on a bit by pitch with one out.
Dylan Ernst (McKeesport, PA./McKeesport HS) would pick him up lifting an RBI Triple to the deepest part of the Polo Grounds as PSUGA got on the board. Zack Craven (McKeesport, PA./McKeesport HS) would ground out in the next at bat scoring Ernst and cutting the deficit to 5-2 after three innings.
The offense continued into the fourth with two on and one out when Brett Yuhas (Munhall, PA./Steel Valley HS) laced a ball off the top of the left field wall bringing home Jordan Williams (McKeesport, PA./McKeesport HS) and Randy Berroa (Harlem, NY./Norman Thomas HS) to make it a one run game. Two batters later, Craven dropped a fly ball into center field tying the game at 5-5.
PSUGA took advantage of a Nassau CC mistake to take the lead two batters later when Diego Marzan (Toa Alta, Puerto Rico/Charter HS) reached on an error by the right fielder allowing both Ernst and Craven to score giving PSUGA a 7-5 lead.
The PSUGA bullpen would shut things down from there as Givler and Matt Smith (McKeesport, PA./McKeesport HS) combined to pitch the last 5.2 innings of shut out ball giving up just four hits and striking out four. PSUGA would get a lone run in the fifth and added two more in the top of the seventh with RBI singles by Ernst and Koglin to help PSUGA secure the victory.
Ernst led the offense going 2-4 with two RBI while Yuhas and Craven each chipped in 1-4 days with two RBI apiece. PSUGA's three through six hitters combined to go 5-14 (.357) with six RBI on the day contributing most of the PSUGA offense. Zach Schmader (South Park, PA./South Park HS) made his first collegiate start going 1.2 innings giving up five runs on seven hits.
PSUGA had their best ever trip to Myrtle Beach finishing up the five game trip with a 3-2 record including back-to-back wins in the final two games. They have momentum on their side as they move closer and closer to conference play in two weeks.
PSUGA returns home Saturday and are back in action when they take on CCAC Boyce on Tuesday at 3 p.m.
