Scranton Lions Baseball Roars to a Big Home Win Over Valley Forge

By: Ross Turetsky, Penn State Scranton Athletics

In a Wednesday afternoon home matinee at Matt McGloin Field, the Penn State Scranton baseball squad snapped their six game losing streak with an impressive 7-4 triumph over non-conference foe the University of Valley Forge Patriots in a single game nine inning affair. With their first home victory of the season, the Lions of Scranton sees their overall record improve to 3-12 and their conference mark stays at 0-4 heading into a big four-game weekend series in league play.

Scranton plated a pair of runs in the bottom half of the first inning, one in the fifth, and a crucial four spot for some extra cushion in the eighth frame to seize their three run triumph by game's end. Valley Forge scored a run in the top of the first, one in the fifth, and two more in the ninth and final inning before their valiant comeback attempt fell short. The road warrior Patriots actually out hit the Lions by the slimmest of margins of 7-6 in the hard fought contest.

The hometown Lions were led on offense by the dynamic duo of sophomore team captain Mike DeWolfe and senior right fielder Justin Craigg who each had stand-out multi-hit performances in the matchup. DeWolfe led the way with a game-high three hits, going 3-5 at the plate, with a trio of RBI, stole two bases, and scored twice on the day. Craigg was a solid 2-5 at the dish, and had a clutch RBI single in the bottom of the fifth to drive home DeWolfe and increase his ball club's advantage to 3-1 at the time. Scranton's other hit came from freshman Ryan Vinton who hit a sweet RBI single to drive home senior Mark Longo to increase his team's lead to 4-1 in the eighth frame. The other RBI came from freshman shortstop Alex Pagotto and fellow freshman Thomas McIntyre who each picked up one.

Meanwhile, Valley Forge had only one lone player have a multi-hit ball game in the showdown, as junior center fielder Manuel Caballero went 2-5 at the dish, with a double, a run scored, and a stolen base to boot. The other five hits for the Patriots came from sophomore catcher Colin Orndorff who also scored a run and chipped in a pair of RBI, freshman third baseman Camden Smith who drilled a double and picked up his team's other RBI, fellow freshman, second baseman Zack Haines who also scored a run, freshman first baseman Tyler Boccelli, and last but certainly not least, sophomore outfielder Joshua Garcia.

On the pitching side of things, DeWolfe started the game for Scranton and tossed a quality two innings, only allowing one earned run, three hits, walked no one, and struck out a batter. Freshman Alex Ferguson came in relief and earned the victory out of the bullpen, as he threw two shutout innings, only surrendering a pair of hits, and fanned two Patriot hitters. Fellow freshman Guy Mushow pitched next and gave his club two innings of work, allowing just one earned run, one hit, walked two, and struck out a couple. McIntyre would come in next out of the pen and threw a dazzling two shutout frames, giving up just one walk, and struck out one. Lastly, Longo came in for the final three outs to nail down the win, allowing two earned runs, one lone hit, two bases on balls, and fanned one. Meanwhile, Valley Forge had four pitchers combined to eat up the eight innings on the mound. Freshman Mike O'Rourke toed the slab first and tossed a trio of innings, giving up two earned runs, a pair of hits, two walks, and struck out two Scranton batters. Fellow freshman hurler Eric Reinhart picked up the loss in relief, as he threw four innings, allowing just one earned run, two hits, a walk, and struck out one. Freshman Charles Hoover came in next out of the pen and struggled, surrendering four earned runs, a hit, and two bases on balls without retiring a single batter. Finally, sophomore Jack Qualteria finished up the day's long baseball festivities by pitching the last inning for his club and did not allow any runs or walks, and gave up just one hit in his appearance.

Now second-year head coach Collin Ferguson and his 3-12 Penn State Scranton baseball squad will look to continue their winning ways when they next host local conference rival Penn State Wilkes-Barre in an integral doubleheader this Friday afternoon, with first pitch scheduled for 2pm. Meanwhile, head coach Joe Clancy and his 10-8 overall and 3-0 in league play University of Valley Forge Patriots baseball team, who with this loss to Scranton had their mini three game victory streak snapped, will try to bounce back and get into the win column when they next go on the road to take on conference foe Saint Elizabeth University for a single nine inning contest this Friday at 3pm.