MIDDLETOWN, Pa. – An historic 2023 campaign came to an end for Penn State Harrisburg's baseball team with a 10-5 setback against No. 2 Salisbury in game four of the best-of-five NCAA Regional Series at Nittany Baseball Field on Sunday afternoon, May 21.
Salisbury (33-6) advances to next weekend's Super Regional Round and will face No. 23 Rowan at a site yet to be announced, while Penn State Harrisburg (34-13) concludes its season with a program-record 34 victories.
Scott Cameron finished 3-for-3 with a walk, two RBI, and two runs scored, while Jacob Ference went 2-for-2 with a double, a walk, three RBI, and a run scored to lead the way for the Sea Gulls. Brandon Epstein earned the win after throwing 0.2 innings of relief and Brock Hilligoss secured the save by throwing the final two frames without allowing a run.
Maddux Ryan hit a pair of doubles, drove in two runs, and scored another to pace the Lions, while Dallas Hite added a home run and had two hits. Brendan Henn, Blaine Waltimyer, and Lucas Floyd also had multi-hit outings. Nick Fitzgerald turned in a strong relief effort, allowing two runs in 6.1 innings of work to go along five strikeouts.
Salisbury opened the game with five runs in the top of the first, sparked by a Ference one-out single that drove in Cam Hyder and Kavi Caster. Danny Sheeler scored when Luke Weddell singles through the left side and Scott Cameron came through with a two-out single to left field that tacked on two more runs before the end of the half inning.
Penn State Harrisburg chipped away throughout the contest, getting on the board when a Carlos Irizarry ground ball allowed Kevin Lehner to score from third base in the top of the second. After Ryan doubled to lead off the bottom of the fourth, Waltimyer brought him around with a double of his own two at-bats later. Hite led off the bottom of the fifth with his third home run in as many games to cut the deficit to two and Fitzgerald slowed the nation's top-scoring offense for six innings to keep his team within striking distance.
In the bottom of the seventh, the Lions pulled even thanks to Ryan's second double of the day; this time with Henn on second base and Matt Parks at first. Both runners came around to score and tie things up heading into the eighth.
In the top of the stanza, Max Ehrhardt reached with a lead-off bloop single and advanced to second on a failed pickoff attempt before Hyder drove him in with a single to center field two at-bats later. Caster drove in another run later in the frame with an RBI single through the right side and Ference tacked on an insurance run with a sac fly.
A double play erased a lead-off single for Penn State Harrisburg in the bottom half and the Sea Gulls added two more runs in the top of the ninth thanks to a two-out single through the left side from Roman March that plated Weddell and Cameron. SU reliever Brock Hilligoss induced three fly balls in the bottom of half to earn his second save of the season and send Salisbury to next weekend's Super Regional round.
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