READING, Pa. – Five Albright relievers combined to pitch eight innings of scoreless relief, but Penn State-Harrisburg broke through in the 10
th inning and went on to defeat the Lions 5-4 on Tuesday at Kelchner Field.
Mat Costa,
William Nicoletto,
Dylan Price,
Trey Eberly and
Trevor Mastria combined to hold Penn State-Harrisburg off the board after the Lions jumped out to a 4-0 lead after two innings of play.
The bullpen combined for 8.0 innings and allowed eight hits and struck out five batters and did not issue a walk.
Despite falling behind 4-0, the Lions were able to mount a comeback as the bullpen kept Penn State-Harrisburg at bay.
Albright cut the lead in half with a two-run fourth inning.
Dylan Boll singled to right center to lead off the inning and advanced to second when
Gabe Santone followed with a single to left.
The Lions scored their first run of the game when
Evan High's sacrifice bunt attempt was thrown down the leftfield line allowing Boll to scamper around from second to score.
Albright loaded the bases when
Noah Beebe drew a walk and
Micah Storms produced an RBI fielder's choice that scored Santone to trim the lead to 4-2.
The Lions trimmed the margin to 4-3 in the bottom of the seventh inning when
Joe Pechulis doubled to lead off the inning. Pinch-runner
Antoine Galloway stole third base and came in to score when the catcher's throw sailed into left.
Albright tied the game at 4-4 in the bottom of the eighth inning.
Nathan Fretz led off the inning with a single and then stole his team-leading 14
th base of the year. After advancing to third on a wild pitch, he scored on a fielding error on a ball hit by Boll.
Penn State-Harrisburg finally broke through in the top of the 10
th inning. Bryan Balshy led off the inning with a triple and came in to score the winning run on a sacrifice fly by Brendan Miller with one out.
Mark Artley pitched 2.2 innings of perfect relief to pick up the win for Penn State-Harrisburg.
Fretz and Boll each had two hits to pace the Albright offensive attack, while Santone and Pechulis also collected base hits.
Penn State-Harrisburg won its sixth straight game to improve to 11-20 overall, while Albright dropped to 11-16-1 on the season.