Riding Spring Momentum, Baseball Takes on Boyce
Coming off their best Spring Training record in program history, the PSUGA Baseball team looks to take that momentum on the road against CCAC-Boyce Tuesday at 3 p.m. The offense has combined to hit .314 in the first seven games and looks to continue to power PSUGA.
McKeesport, PA. – Coming off the best spring training start they have had in program history, the Penn State Greater Allegheny Baseball team (5-2, 0-0) is looking to take that momentum on the road when they face CCAC-Boyce (1-1, 0-0) on Tuesday at 3 p.m. PSUGA has won each of their last two games and the offense has been one of the driving forces of the team combining to hit .314 over the first seven games of the season.
PSUGA is coming off of a come from behind victory on Friday that saw them take down Nassau Community College 10-5 to cap off a 3-2 trip to Myrtle Beach. It was the first time that PSUGA did not get on the board first as they gave up five runs in the bottom of the second to put themselves in a hole early. However, they showed resilience responding with two runs the very next half inning as they cut the lead to 5-2 after three.
Their big inning came in the top of the fourth when Brett Yuhas (Munhall, PA./Steel Valley HS) hit a two run double off the wall in left and Zack Craven (McKeesport, PA./McKeesport HS) added a bloop single up the middle that tied the game at 5-5. PSUGA then took advantage of a Nassau CC mistake as Diego Marzan (Toa Alta, Puerto Rico/Leadership Christian Academy) lifted a ball to right field that was dropped allowing two runs to score and giving PSUGA a 7-5 lead.
They would never look back from there adding a run in the top of the fifth and two in the top of the seventh to close out the win. The PSUGA bullpen combined to throw 5.2 innings giving up no runs and allowing just four hits. Matt Givler (Coatesville, PA./Coatesville HS) would pick up his second win of the season while Matt Smith (North Versailles, PA./East Allegheny HS) grabbed his first save of the year pitching the final three innings of the win.
The win allowed PSUGA to finish their time at the Cal Ripken Experience with a winning record for the first time in program history. They defeated three very good teams with their biggest win coming over Lackawanna College on Monday 7-4. Jordan Williams (McKeesport, Pa./McKeesport HS) has had a hot start to the season going 16-24 (.667) with nine RBI ranking him second on the team. Smith has also been a workhorse for head coach Kenny Creehan appearing in four of the seven games played so far.
CCAC-Boyce enters Tuesday’s match-up 1-1 after splitting their season opening doubleheader with Eastern Gateway Community College losing the first game 6-0 and winning the second game 12-2. After being shut out in the first game, CCAC-Boyce would go on to score all 12 of their runs in the fourth, fifth, and sixth innings in game two powering themselves to their first win of the season.
The only previous match-up between these two teams came on March 24th 2015 when PSUGA picked up an 8-3 win. Former Lion Clay Groff went 1-3 with 2 RBI in the game while teammate Josh Arroyo went 1-2 driving in three runs in the game. Nobody from the team’s current roster was in that game giving them a fresh new perspective this time around.
First pitch for Tuesday’s game is scheduled for 3 p.m. on the campus of CCAC-Boyce.