York, Pa. – The Penn State Harrisburg men's baseball team has been struggling to get out of the slump they have slowly fallen into this spring. The Lions still have a distance to climb out of the hole they dug for themselves, but Thursday's 12-7 win over rival York College was a great place to find their footing.
After a slow first inning at the plate, The Lions pounced on the Spartans for their best offensive inning so far this season. Penn State Harrisburg went through the entire lineup in the second inning accumulating a whopping eight runs. It all started when Chris Iocca (North Brunswick, N.J. / N. Brunswick Twp) used his single to right field to score Josh Brubaker (Lancaster, Pa. / Lancaster Christian) for the first run of the game. Iocca did not stop there, he went on to finish the game going 4-4, scored twice, and claimed three RBI's in a very impressive outing for the freshman.
Penn State Harrisburg extended their lead a few more in the fifth and seventh inning to go ahead 9-0 moving into the bottom of the eighth inning. Fortunately for York College, starting pitcher Will Chaney (Lancaster, Pa. /Lampeter-Strasburg) was taken out after seven complete innings not allowing a single run and striking out five. The Spartans were able to find their swing again with the Harrisburg relief pitching in the final two innings. Despite scoring seven runs, the damage was done and the additional two runs the Blue and White scored in the top of the ninth were just icing on the cake of the eventual 12-7 win.
The Lions won't get to enjoy their win for long as both teams face off against each other Friday April 3rd for the final game of the series. Harrisburg host the York Spartans at 3:30 p.m.