Middletown Pa - Penn State Harrisburg's Brian Balshy (Palmyra, Pa. / Palmyra) stood out from the plate today going 2-4 including a double and deep HR over the left field wall. Despite his strong performance, the men's baseball team eventually fell after 11 innings in an exciting thriller to Gettysburg 4-3.
The Blue and White went down in the second inning after a walk and two base hits gave the Bullets the first lead of the day. Solid pitching from Dustin Rutt (Ephrata, Pa. / Ephrata), who was caught by his twin brother Branden (Ephrata, Pa/ Ephrata), helped keep the first half of the game tight.
In the bottom of the fourth Harrisburg got on the board and tied things up thanks to Balshy's monster HR, his third of the season. After a solid five innings from Rutt on the mound, Derek Slagle (York Haven, Pa. / Red Land) came in to pitch for the next two innings. Both teams got a run in the seventh keeping the game tied at 2-2 after seven.
Tom Chaney (Lancaster, Pa. / Lampeter-Strasburg) then entered the game in hopes of keeping the Bullets off the board, while his teammates would provide the offense for the win. In the most exciting game played so far this year at Penn State Harrisburg, the game came down to the final inning and then some. After Gettysburg scored one run in the ninth, the Lions were three outs away from another one run loss.
John Cataldo (Pine Grove, Pa. / Pine Grove) singled to left field to start things off and was directly followed up by Travis Crammer (Cerritos, Cal / Cerritos) who bunted for a single to move him to second. A SAC bunt by Colton Houseal (Maytown, Pa. / Donegal) then moved the runners to 2nd and 3rd. After Branden Rutt grounded out Balshy was intentionally walked, loading the bases.
Cody Henry (Halifax, Pa. / Halifax) faced a 3-2 count with 2 outs and handled the pressure well hitting a ground ball just inside the grass of right field. Cataldo scored again and Crammer went for home. The play at the plate could have been called either way as it appeared the catcher missed the tag, but it was not going to be a story book day for the lions that would have to fight for the win in extra innings.
After two intense innings, Gettysburg scored one in the top of the 11th. The Lions again fought back to score, but it was just not there day and fell in another tight good game.
Despite the loss, Harrisburg played extremely well and did not give up a single error. The game could have gone either way, but having three runners picked off could have been the slight difference that ended up in another one run loss for the Lions.
Harrisburg gets a shot at redemption tomorrow at 1:00 for a home game against Stevenson who is currently on a 4 game win streak and 16-7 on the season.
Click below for post game from Brian Balshy.