Game Recap Men's Baseball
March 27, 2018
Phoenixville, PA.- The University of Valley Forge Men's Baseball team (3-12) hosted the Penn State Nittany Lions of Hazelton (1-9) in a double header Tuesday afternoon. The Patriots took the first game of the double header, while Penn State came back and took the second for the two game split.
Game 1- Patriots 16, Lions 11
Game Summary- The beginning of game one saw Penn State jump to an early lead, scoring in all of the first three innings. They jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the top of the first, when Tanner Lawre ripped an RBI double to center field, which scored Charles Karc. Valley Forge answered in the bottom half, when Bryan Reyes tripled to right field. He scored on a sac fly by
Cody Rak, tying the score at 1. Penn State answered with a bigger statement in the second, scoring three runs in the top of the frame. After Dominic Yann singled, he stole second, advanced on an error, and then scored on a sac bunt single by Luis Tejeda. After three more baserunners, and three more wild pitches on behalf of the Patriots, two more runs would cross, giving the Lions a 4-1 lead. The Patriots responded with two runs of their own in the bottom of the second, but the Lions answered in the top of the third with three more runs, giving themselves a 7-3 lead. After another run in the top of the fourth for the Lions, the UVF bats came alive. The Patriots answered with six runs in the bottom of the fourth. The bases were loaded for most of this inning, and the Patriots capitalized with good eyes at the plate and timely hitting. Bryan Edwards also stole home, that gave the Patriots some momentum. After two more runs in the fifth and five more in the sixth, Zach Nunnery gave up a few more runs, but he shut the door for his third win of the season, and the Patriots walked away with a 16-11 victory.
Game 2- Patriots 5, Lions 9
Game Summary- After a wild first game with hits, runs, errors and walks, game 2 took a step back. Both teams had a nice first inning, with the Lions jumping out to a 2-0 lead. Tim Kindler lead off the inning with a walk, and Charles Karc reached on a fielder's choice. From there, he stole second, and scored on a single. Then, Tanner Lawre scored from third on a passed ball, after he walked and advance to third on an RBI single. The Patriots responded in the bottom frame, and
James Jackson scored on an RBI single by Bryan Reyes after he walked. Reyes then stole second, and he scored on an RBI single from
Cody Rak. From there, Penn State chipped away at Starting Pitcher Jeffrey Espinal, scoring runs in the second and third inning to take a 4-2 lead. Meanwhile, pitcher Charles Karchner was cruising through the Patriots lineup, giving his team a chance to take the lead. All of a sudden, the Patriots broke through with three runs in the bottom half of the fourth to take a 5-4 lead. The big blow came with
James Jackson on first and Bryan Edwards at third. Bryan Reyes triple down the right field line, and after a throwing error, scored to make it 5-4, knocking in three runs with one swing of a bat. It would not last for long, as the Lions came back with four runs in the top of the fifth to regain the lead. James Brielm knocked in a run with an RBI double, and Jordy Tejeda knocked in a run with a single to make it 6-5. Then, back to back balks scored the next two runs, making it 8-5 in favor of Penn State. After making it 9-5 with one run in the top of the sixth, and after the Patriots did not respond, the game was called due to the darkness. Espinal is saddled with the loss, and the Patriots split the double header.
Up Next- After Easter break, the Patriots travel to Clarks Summit, PA to take on the Clarks Summit University Defenders April 3. Penn State was supposed to travel to Summerdale to take on Central Pennsylvania College, but the game was postponed.
Go Patriots!
