MIDDLETOWN, Pa. – No. 23 Penn State Harrisburg completed the weekend sweep of United East rival Penn State Abington with a 14-1, seven-inning victory on Sunday afternoon. Kevin Lehner and Dallas Hite each hit home runs, while Brendan Henn and Drew Sassaman had three hits apiece. Fisher Druck earned the win, allowing just two hits in 5.1 innings of work.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Penn State Harrisburg (26-7, 12-0 United East) roared to life to the tune of 17 hits, including eight of the extra-base variety, and 14 runs on Sunday afternoon, with the Lions scoring in every inning except one during their most recent victory.
The hometown Lions jumped out to a 3-0 advantage in the bottom of the first thanks to a Carlos Irizarry double that plated Brendan Henn and Drew Sassaman, as well as a Josh Lantz RBI single that drove in Irizarry with two away.
Penn State Harrisburg added to the early lead when Blaine Waltimyer and Henn doubled in consecutive at-bats and Irizarry brought in Henn with an RBI single up the middle to make it 5-0 through two innings. Henn drove in another run with a two-out single in the third.
Penn State Abington (11-23, 8-7 United East) got on the board with a one-out double that plated Sean Doherty from first base but the home team answered right back in the bottom half thanks to a Bill Zentmayer RBI ground out and a Braeden Piotrowski double to right center field that brought Josh Lantz across.
The fireworks continued in the bottom of the fifth when Lehner and Hite homered in back-to-back at-bats to push the lead to 10-1 before Demetre Koutras III put an exclamation point on the day's scoring with a two-out double to left field that drove in Lantz and Zentmayer to give the hometown Lions a 13-run advantage.
Druck did not allow a hit through the first three stanzas and Braden Collazo and Joel Sneeringer entered in relief in the top of the sixth and seventh innings, picking up where Druck left off, with Collazo allowing a single base runner before Sneeringer kept the visitors off the board in the final frame to secure the win and the series sweep.
NOTABLES
- As a team, Penn State Harrisburg racked up eight extra-base hits, including six doubles and two home runs.
- Henn finished 3-for-4 with a double, two RBI, and a pair of runs scored.
- Lehner went 1-for-2 with a three-run blast, two walks, and two runs scored.
- Irizarry was 2-for-3 with a double, a walk, three RBI, and two runs scored.
- Sassaman went 3-for-4 with a double and two runs scored.
- Lantz had a multi-hit outing, scoring two runs and driving in another.
- Druck improved to 5-1 on the year, allowing just one run on two hits to go along with four strikeouts in 5.1 innings thrown.
WHO'S NEXT?
The Lions travel to Susquehanna for a non-conference tilt on Tuesday afternoon.
STAY CONNECTED
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