Penn State Scranton Baseball Falls to Conference Foe York

By: Ross Turetsky, Penn State Scranton Athletics

On a warm mid-April, Friday afternoon in the electric city, the Penn State Scranton Lions baseball squad dropped a home conference tilt to Penn State York by the score of 13-3 in the seven inning contest. With the loss, Scranton's overall record stands at 3-13 and they are 3-9 in the all-important conference play heading into the final week of the regular season schedule. Meanwhile with their win, interim head coach Joe Royer and his Penn State York squad sees their record improve to 10-10 overall and a very impressive 9-1 in league play.

The road warriors from York jumped out to an early robust 11-0 lead after only the first inning of play and never looked back. Overall their dynamic offense banged out eight hits, walked nine times, and scored 13 runs in their double digit triumph. At the plate York had two stalwart performers who had multi-hit ball games, as sophomore third baseman Kameron Bayman went 3-4, scoring a run, drew a walk, and collected 2 RBI, while freshman designated hitter Jason Williams was 2-5 on the day, knocking in a run, and scoring a run during the festivities. On the mound, York's freshman right-handed hurler Quinton McNew led the way, as he pitched a complete game effort in the win, as he threw all seven innings, surrendering just four hits, three runs, two earned runs, no walks, and fanning eight Scranton hitters in the matinee.

Meanwhile for Scranton, they battled back after the tough first inning and showed tremendous fight, as they outscored York the rest of the game 3-2. In the bottom of the fourth inning the Lions would get on the scoreboard when freshman outfielder Garrett Walsh laced a single to left and would come around to score when senior outfielder Joe Talutto crushed a two run home run over the right field fence to cut the deficit to 11-2. Walsh would score another run in the bottom of the sixth inning when he came across the plate on a wild pitch to cut York's advantage to 11-3. Keeping his squad in the ball game was the stellar relief pitching of sophomore Evan Longo, as he threw 5 2/3 innings of shutout ball, while only giving up two hits, one walk, and striking out three York batters. However, York would pick up two more runs in the top of the seventh inning to increase their lead to 13-3 by game's end.

Now interim head coach Collin Ferguson and his Penn State Scranton Lions will look to avenge their loss to Penn State York the very next day, as they are scheduled to battle their conference rival on the road on Saturday afternoon in a doubleheader for York's Senior Day festivities with first pitch set for 12 pm.