Behrend Lions Baseball Knocks Off #22 Ithaca Bombers 6-5 on Saturday, May 3
Saturday, May 3, featured a spontaneous match up between Penn State Behrend and Ithaca College in Ithaca, New York. With both teams looking to get some additional work in before the postseason, Behrend earned a 6-5 decision on the road against an outstanding, well coached, NCAA caliber team.
Behrend worked on erasing a 4-0 deficit entering the sixth inning. Dave Miller's (St.Marys/St.Marys) pinch hit single made it 4-2 and put Behrend in striking distance.
An inning later after Josh Fyffe (Fredonia/Sharpsville) reached via error and stole second base, John Gray's (State College/State College) single up the middle made it 4-3 before sophomore Dustin Dubensky (Punxsutawney/ Punxsutawney) stepped to the plate. With Behrend trailing by one, Dubensky put his head down on one and cracked a two-run go ahead home run to give Behrend a one-run lead. Ithaca tied the game at five after a couple hits before senior Jason Bartlett's (Erie/Iroquois) two-out double drove in the game winner in the top of the eighth inning.
After Ithaca scored four runs off David Koerbel (Pittsburgh/Central Catholic), Fran Haus (Wexford/North Allegheny) pitched a scoreless fourth inning before turning it over to Behrend ace Andrew Chrobak (Laurel/New Castle). Chrobak worked five innings, giving up seven hits and only one earned run to pick up his seventh win of the season.
Ithaca fell to 25-11, while the blue and white improved to 31-9, the third most wins in school history behind the 2002 club that went 35-8 and won the ECAC Southern Region title and the 2003 team that earned a 33-10 record en route to the AMCC Tournament title and another ECAC Southern Region championship.
"Our staff is proud of the way our team played in a challenging situation," said head coach Paul Benim. "This will keep our squad moving in a positive direction and provided us with an opportunity to challenge ourselves and prepare for the AMCC Tournament."
Ithaca has appeared in the NCAA
Tournament in 27 of 28 years, is ranked #22 in the ABCA Coaches Poll and
ranked second in the New York region. Behrend entered the game ranked sixth
in the NCAA Mid-Atlantic region, after posting a 17-1 mark during the AMCC
regular-season and will host the AMCC Conference Tournament on May 9-11.
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