Scranton Drops Baseball Season Opener to Montgomery County Community College

By: Ross Turetsky, Penn State Scranton Athletics

On a mild Sunday in February, the Penn State Scranton baseball squad kicked off their new 2023 season at Dunmore's historic Schautz Stadium's turf field where they lost to the visiting non-conference Montgomery County Community College Mustangs 18-5 in an 8 inning home matinee.

The road warriors from Montgomery put up a prolific hitting display in their opening contest where they tallied 18 runs, 20 hits, four home runs, and scored one in the second inning, two in the third, one in the fourth, one in the fifth, one in the sixth, one in the seventh, and a whopping 11 runs in the eighth and final frame.

The Lions from Scranton were led on offense by their stand-out freshman catcher from Scranton High School Thomas McIntyre, as he bounced back in a big way after grounding out into a double play and striking out swinging in his first two ever college at-bats in the second and fifth innings respectively. In his final two at-bats on the day, McIntyre crushed an opposite field RBI double to right field to drive in fellow freshman Guy Mushow in the bottom of the sixth inning to cut the deficit to just a mere two runs at 6-4, and in his final at-bat of the day in the eighth inning he drilled a nice RBI single up the middle to center field to drive in sophomore Ayden Ondek to cut the deficit to 18-5 by game's end. Altogether, McIntyre impressed at the plate in his college debut by going 2-4 with two RBI, had a single, and a double to account for his team's lone extra base hit on the afternoon.

On the day, Scranton had six hits and three other players beside McIntyre who nabbed RBI. Sophomore first baseman Zach Benson smoked a long RBI single to right field in the sixth inning to cut the lead to 6-3, freshman outfielder Ryan Vinton had an infield RBI single to drive in Mark Longo to score his team's first run of the season in the bottom of the fifth, sophomore infielder Javier Rivera had an RBI groundout to drive in Vinton to make it 5-2 in the fifth, and both freshmen Mushow and Alex Pagotto each had a hit apiece.

Meanwhile on the Montgomery offensive side of things, they had a well-balanced attack at the plate where seven of their players put up stalwart multi-hit performances. Freshman left fielder Travis Shiller led the way with a game-high four hits, as he went a near perfect 4-5 at the plate, to go along with his trio of runs scored, and an RBI. Sophomore right fielder Jake Phillips went 3-6, with a game-high four RBI, three runs scored, and managed a rare feat by hitting two inside the park two run home runs to center field in the top of the third and eight innings respectively. Freshman second baseman Aidan Rapp had a 2-4 day at the plate with a hat trick of RBI and two runs scored. Sophomore third baseman Connor English went 2-5, with three runs scored, two RBI, a walk, and smashed a two run homer over the tall right field fence in the final inning of the game. Freshman shortstop Gregg Hanson went 2-5, with two RBI, a walk, and scored a run. Freshman designated hitter Mike Greco was 2-5 at the dish, scored a run, to go along with an RBI. Freshman catcher Jake Bruno went 2-5, scored a couple of runs, and had two RBI. Also of note, freshman first baseman Jimmy Marino pulled a solo home run over the right field wall in the top of the sixth inning, to go along with his two walks, two runs scored, an RBI, and went 1-3 at the plate.

On the pitching side of things, Scranton utilized five right-handed hurlers to pitch the entire eight innings of the contest. Senior ace, Longo, started on the mound for the Lions and threw 2 2/3 innings, gave up just five hits, three earned runs, two walks, and fanned three Montgomery batters. The other Scranton pitchers that threw were sophomore Mike DeWolfe, freshman John Paffenroth, Mushow, and Ondek. Meanwhile, Montgomery had a trio of pitchers combined to throw all the innings on the mound for their club. Freshman righty Evan Wineburg started on the hill and threw three shutout innings, only allowing one hit, no walks, and struck out two Scranton hitters. Fellow freshman right-hander Cole Schuck earned the win in relief with his two innings pitched, and lefty Connor Woodson pitched the game's final three innings to wrap up the festivities.

Penn State Scranton's second-year head baseball coach Collin Ferguson discussed his thoughts after his team's opening game of the 2023 campaign. "Yeah the scoreboard is obviously not what we are looking for but we saw a lot of good things. We've got a young squad this year, so the first game really coming out, they've got to learn how I coach, and I've got to learn how they play. So we learned a lot today. A lot of bad things happened in order for us to really learn and never do again. So going forward, we are looking up for the future for sure," said coach Ferguson.

Now coach Ferguson and his 0-1 Penn State Scranton baseball squad will look to bounce back next Saturday, February 25^th, when they are scheduled to play a road double-header against Valley Forge at Diamond Nation in Flemington, New Jersey, with first pitch set for 12 noon. Meanwhile, head baseball coach Mike Fitzgerald and his 1-0 Montgomery County Community College Mustangs will look to stay undefeated on the young season when they next host Cairn University this upcoming Wednesday, February 22^nd at 3:30pm.