The Saint Vincent baseball team returned to play Thursday after a 12-day hiatus, as they played host to Penn State Altoona for an afternoon doubleheader.
The Bearcats lost both games of the doubleheader, falling 10-3 in game one and 15-8 in game two.
GAME ONE- PSU ALTOONA 10, SAINT VINCENT 3
After nearly two weeks off, the Bearcats picked up their offensive firepower right where they left off in Florida with a solid first inning. In the top of the first,
Julian Santana led off the bottom of the first for the Bearcats with a single to right center. Jordan Sabol laid down a sacrifice bunt to move Santana over to second base. Then, Zach Barberich knocked in Santana with an RBI single to right center, giving the Bearcats an early 1-0 lead.
The score would remain 1-0 Saint Vincent through the next two innings, as SVC starter Justin Wright kept the Lions off the board. After a couple hits to start off the top half of the fourth, PSU-Altoona's Garrett Alauzen hit a sacrifice fly, which scored Corey Chamberlain to tie the game up at one. Wright limited the damage once again for the Bearcats, as the score remained 1-1 heading to the fifth.
In the fifth inning, the Lions opened the game up with a five-run inning, lacing five hits, to go with a combination of two Saint Vincent errors in the inning, to take the 6-1 advantage.
After holding Saint Vincent scoreless for the fourth inning in a row, the Lions added three more in the top of the sixth, as Jake Hillard hit a three-run homer, to take a 9-1 lead as the game headed to the bottom of the sixth.
Saint Vincent responded back in the bottom of the sixth. Zach Vonstein ripped a two-run home run to left center, scoring Billy Perroz, which cut the PSU-Altoona lead to 9-3.
The Lions would answer by adding an insurance run in the seventh inning and held the Bearcats in check in the bottom half of the inning to take game one, 10-3.
The Bearcats totaled eight hits in the defeat, led by a 3-for-4 showing from Santana. Wright worked into the fifth on the mound, allowing five runs (two earned) on five hits with three strikeouts. He was the first of four Bearcat hurlers on the day.
GAME 2- PSU ALTOONA 15, SAINT VINCENT 8
Game two started out as a pitcher's duel, just as game one did. Both teams threatened to score, but neither team could find a way to get a run across the plate through the first three innings.
In the top half of the fourth inning, the Lions cracked the scoreboard first, pushing across three runs on three hits to take a 3-0 lead, before they plated two more in the fifth to go in front 5-0.
Saint Vincent stormed right back in the bottom half of the fifth, scoring four runs in the inning, to cut the Penn State-Altoona lead to 5-4. After a Sabol walk and a couple hits from Jeremy Kreuzweiser and TJ Dailey, Saint Vincent found themselves with bases loaded and no one out. That's when a wild pitch plated Sabol from third, before Perroz then reached on error to score Kreuzweiser. After Perroz reached, he stole second base and an errant throw Dailey to come in easily from third base. Matthew Lockwich then plated Perroz to cap off the scoring in the inning.
After the big inning for Saint Vincent, the Lions countered by erupting for 10 runs on 10 hits in the top of the sixth to open up a 15-4 lead.
Saint Vincent would not go down without a fight. The Bearcats held Penn State Altoona scoreless in the top half of the seventh and plated four runs of their own in the bottom half. After a couple hits, Cameron Hyde hit an RBI infield single to score Blake Marshall and Austin Tirpak as the deficit was cut to 15-6. Derek Hald capped off the scoring in the loss for the Bearcats as he roped a two-run homer to left center, the first of his career, to score Hyde and account for the 15-8 final.
Eight different players accounted for SVC's 10 hits in the defeat, with Kruezweiser finishing 2-for-3 and Barberich 2-for-2. Aaron Stephan started and threw 3.2 innings, taking the loss after allowing three runs on seven hits with two strikeouts.
The Bearcats will be back in action on Saturday, March 19, traveling to Marietta College, ranked #1 in the nation by D3Baseball.com, for a 1 p.m. doubleheader.
