Behrend Lions Come up Short Against Messiah in NCAA Tournament
The
Penn State Behrend baseball team lost its opening round game of the NCAA
Tournament 8-1 to the Messiah Falcons on Wednesday, May 14 in Newark, New
Jersey. The blue and white will now play the loser of the Kean vs. Gwynedd-Mercy
game at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday in the double-elimination regional tournament.
AMCC Player and Pitcher of the Year David
Koerbel (Pittsburgh/Central Catholic) took the mound to start the game
against the Falcons and got through two innings with
the game scoreless, before Messiah manufactured a run in the top of the
third to take a 1-0 lead. The blue and white would threaten to get on
the board in the bottom of the fourth, when Adam Martin
(Rochester/Rochester) and Joe Breiter (Finleyville/Ringgold) each
singled, but Messiah pitcher Dan Kern worked out of the jam, and was able to
end the inning and hold the 1-0 lead.
Messiah got two straight singles to start the sixth inning, before Jordan Zimmerman
doubled, scoring one run. The Falcons then got the bases loaded with two
outs when an infield single scored another runner to make it a 3-0 game.
Junior reliever Ben Cain (Venetia/Peters Township) came on to record the final out of the inning and
keep the Behrend Lions within three runs heading to the bottom of the sixth.
Senior catcher Martin then got the blue and white on the scoreboard when he
led off the bottom of the sixth inning with a solo homerun. Martin's
shot over the leftfield fence, made it a 3-1 ballgame.
In the bottom of the seventh, senior first baseman Zach Sullivan (Oil
City/Oil City) led off the inning with a single before Ryan Liddle's (DuBois/DuBois)
sacrifice put Sullivan on second with one out. Messiah's Kern
responded by getting two fly balls to end the inning and hold Messiah's 3-1
lead.
In the top of the eighth Messiah got that run back after its leadoff batter
singled and later scored on an error. The Falcons led 4-1 with Behrend
down to just six remaining outs. The blue and white could not get
anything going in the eighth inning, but Messiah was not done with the bats.
The Falcons erupted for four more runs in the top of the ninth, building a
8-1 lead, before getting the final three outs in the bottom of the ninth to
close it out.
The Wednesday game between Kean and Gwynedd-Mercy to determine Behrend's
Thursday opponent is set to begin around 1:30 p.m.