Scranton Lions Baseball Drop a Twin Bill to Bucks County

By: Ross Turetsky, Penn State Scranton Athletics

On a chilly Wednesday afternoon in the electric city, the Penn State Scranton baseball team lost both ends of their home doubleheader against non-conference foe Bucks County Community College by the scores of 18-6 and 18-2 respectively on the historic Schautz Stadium turf field in Dunmore. With the defeat, the Lions from Scranton see their overall record move to 1-4 on the young season, all in non-conference action so far, before they kick-off their all-important league play schedule in a couple of weeks on Friday, March 24^th on the road against Penn State Brandywine.

In game one, after Scranton took the early 1-0 advantage in the bottom half of the first inning, Bucks County's offense came storming back in a big way, as they put up a whopping eight runs in the top of the second inning, three more in the fourth, four in the fifth, and three more in the seventh and final frame to account for their dominant 12 run road victory by game's end. Besides scoring 18 runs, Bucks County banged out an impressive 12 hits in the contest compared to Scranton being held to just one hit in the matchup. Meanwhile, after Scranton scored a run in the opening frame, they scored two runs in the third, and three in the fourth inning to account for their six runs scored in the ball game.

Scranton's lone hit in the contest came from their junior left fielder Garrett Walsh, who went 1-2 at the plate, walking twice, scoring two runs, and driving in two when he hammered a nice two run single in the bottom half of the fourth inning to cut his team's deficit to just 11-6. The other RBI for the Lions came from their sophomore first baseman Zach Benson and fellow sophomore infielder Javier Rivera who each drove in a run. Besides their one hit, Scranton's offense did get on base a lot by drawing a whopping 10 walks in the ball game, led by their senior center fielder Mark Longo who drew three bases on balls.

Meanwhile, for Bucks County's powerful offense, they had a trio of players who had stand-out multi-hit performances, as sophomore centerfielder Christian Jimenez, sophomore left fielder Cory DiMario, and fellow sophomore right fielder Dalton Turner set the pace for their club. Jimenez, the team's lead-off hitter, was an impressive 3-5 at the dish, with a game-high five RBI, and scored a run. DiMario went 2-3 at the plate, scoring a hat trick of runs, driving in two, and walked once. Last but certainly not least, Turner was a perfect 2-2 at the plate, scoring a game-high four runs, with an RBI, and a walk.

On the pitching side of things, five Scranton pitchers toed the slab in the first game of the twin bill, as sophomore Mike DeWolfe started on the mound and took the loss, before freshman Thomas McIntyre, freshman Alex Pagotto, fellow freshman Ryan Vinton, and Rivera came out of the bullpen to wrap up the ball game. Meanwhile, on the Bucks County side of things, freshman Matt Futer started on the hill and pitched two innings allowing just one earned run, before fellow freshman Thomas Hershey came in relief and threw an inning allowing five runs, three of them earned, and sophomore Christian Culver finished up the contest by throwing a stalwart four shutout innings while fanning six Scranton batters.

In the game two, Bucks County raced out to a sizeable lead and never looked back, as they scored four in the first, three in the second, three in the third, and eight runs in the top half of the fifth inning to account for their 16 run victory by game's end. Scranton's two runs came in the bottom of the first inning on a solid two run single for Longo that cut the deficit to 4-2 at the time. Altogether, Bucks County out hit Scranton 12-3 in the nightcap.

Scranton's offense drew four walks in the second game and their three hits, all singles, came from Longo, Pagotto, and McIntyre. Meanwhile, for Bucks County they had four players who had multiple hits, as freshman shortstop Nick Lombardo, sophomore first baseman Joshua McGee, freshman third baseman Danny Gonzalez, and designated hitter Turner led the way for their squad. Lombardo went 3-4 at the dish, scoring a game-high five runs, with an RBI, and a walk. McGee also went 3-4, driving in four runs, and scored twice. Gonzalez was 2-3, with a game-high four RBI, scored a run, and walked once. Finally, Turner went 2-4 at the plate, driving in four runs, and scored three times in the matchup.

On the pitching side of things, Scranton had a trio of hurlers take the mound, as freshman John Paffenroth started and went two innings, before Longo came in relief and threw two innings and allowed three earned runs on just two hits and struck out two batters, and finally, freshman Alex Ferguson wrapped up the contest by throwing the final inning out of the pen. Meanwhile, for Bucks County's pitching story, Freshman right-handed hurler Dennis Szychuslki started on the mound and earned the victory, as he threw the first four innings, allowing just three hits, two earned runs, four walks, and struck out two Scranton batters. Sophomore right-hander Ryan Bethel came in relief for Bucks County and threw a scoreless final inning and struck out a batter to close out the day's long baseball festivities.

Now head coach Collin Ferguson and his 1-4 Penn State Scranton baseball squad will look to snap their mini three game losing streak, when they next host Central Maine Community College for a doubleheader this Friday afternoon, with first pitch scheduled for 12 noon. Meanwhile, head coach CJ Brancato and his 3-0 Bucks County Community College ball club will look to remain perfect when they next host a twin bill this upcoming Saturday afternoon against Penn State Fayette starting at 2:30pm.