Posted: Apr 27, 2016
Middletown, Pa.- The Penn State Harrisburg baseball team hosted Juniata this afternoon for their final game of the 2016 season. The Lion's dominated the first seven innings before Juniata made a final effort in the eighth to overcome Harrisburg's early 13-0 lead. Harrisburg held on to win 15-11.
Tom Denniston got things started for the Lion's with his first single of the afternoon in the opening inning. Connor Bowers and Ethan Kell each added an RBI to give Harrisburg a 3-0 lead after the first. In the bottom of the fourth the Lion's brought in four runs as Justin O'Dell singled, bringing home Travis VanHouten and Scott Angstadt Jr, and Denniston singled sending home Blake Reiff and O'Dell. As the fifth inning came to a close, Harrisburg added three more runs off of a walk by O'Dell, a sacrifice fly from Reiff, and an error by Juniata's short stop. Ethan Kell stepped up for his third home run of the year in the bottom of the sixth.
The visitors first run of the day came off of a single in the seventh before heading into the eighth where Juniata brought in ten straight runs. The Eagles drew back-to-back walks to start the inning before Anthony Lombardo singled to load the bases with no outs. Juniata added two RBI's off a single before adding two more runs off of errors by the Lion's. The visitors finished the inning with a 2-run homer now down by only two. Harrisburg sealed their final victory of the season in the eighth with a double from Reiff and a fly ball to right field by Jackson Struve.
The Lion's finished the season with an overall record of 19-23. In conference, Harrisburg finished 9-9. Harrisburg made large strides this season with their first ever CAC playoff game against Frostburg State.