Baseball Drops Two Spots, Stays in Top 20 in Weekly Poll

McKeesport, PA. – The United States Collegiate Athletic Association released their weekly coach's poll on Wednesday night and, despite struggles in their series with PSU-Mont Alto, the Penn State Greater Allegheny Baseball team (9-11, 4-5) stayed in the top 20. They dropped two spots from last week and are in a tie for #15 with the College of St. Joseph’s Vermont and sit at 9-11 overall and 4-5 in Penn State University Athletic Conference play.

The drop comes after going 1-2 in their series with PSU-Mont Alto last weekend and taking a 17-6 loss at the hands of #8 Bryant & Stratton college on Tuesday. After struggling to score runs early in the week, the offense picked it back up in the final two games combining to score 10 runs while going 1-1 in those games.

Despite the teams recent struggles, it has been a hot stretch for PSUGA Senior Dylan Ernst (McKeesport, PA./McKeesport HS). After having a season long 12-game hitting streak broken up on Friday, Ernst came back and finished the week going 8-13 (.615) with five RBI. He is currently tied for the team lead in RBI with teammate Brett Yuhas (Munhall, PA./Steel Vallery HS) with 15 and leads the team with his .491 batting average. Ernst has also reached base safely in 16 straight games entering play this weekend.

Also leading the pack for the PSUGA offense as of late has been freshman catcher Diego Marzan (Toa Alta, Puerto Rico/Leadership Christian Academy). After starting the season hitting just .143, Marzan has upped his average to .235 going 4-6 (.667) with four RBI in the series with Mont Alto and the game against Bryant & Stratton on Tuesday. The offense has been one of the driving forces for the team this season and to see them on the upswing entering the final two weeks of the season is a promising sign for head coach Kenny Creehan and his team.

As the playoffs get closer and closer PSUGA currently sits in third in the PSUAC West Division sitting with a one game lead over PSU-Fayette sitting at 4-5 in conference play. With their final two series coming against the bottom two teams in the division, PSUGA needs to secure series wins in each of those series to ensure their sixth trip to the PSUAC tournament in the last ten seasons.

The PSUGA Baseball team kicks off their playoff push when they open a three-game series with PSU-Beaver on Friday at 3 p.m. The game will be played at No-Offseason Sports in Tarentum, PA. The baseball field is located across the street from the main facility at 1601 Saxonburg Boulevard Tarentum, PA.