READING, Pa. – Albright starting pitcher
Matt Fisher and his counterpart from Hood, Travis Schweizer, filled the strike zone early and often in Friday's MAC Commonwealth baseball game at Kelchner Field. The results came in the form of short at-bats and plenty of quick outs. Hood eventually scored a run in the fourth inning, and the lone big half inning also went the Blazers' way in a 4-1 victory over the Lions.
Fisher line of four runs and eight hits over 5.2 innings doesn't do his performance justice, but Schweizer performed just a bit better. He went eight innings, allowing just one run on seven hits. Even with the strong performance from Schweizer, the Lions had the first opportunity to score in the bottom of the third.
Austin Roth reached on an infield single, and he should have been erased on a potential double play in
Logan Pennypacker's at-bat, but the flip from second base was muffed. With two on and out, the Albright offense sputtered with a pop out and strikeout to end the inning. Roth had two hits for the Lions.
A leadoff single turned into a run for Hood in the top of the fourth inning when Wayne Baldwin came through with a two-out RBI single up the middle to give Hood a 1-0 lead. The Blazers finally chased Fisher in the top of the sixth inning. With the bases loaded and one out, a softly hit grounder to second wasn't tailor-made for a double play, and the out at first allowed the second run of the day to cross. In the next at-bat, though, Hood doubled its lead with another two-out hit, this time scoring two more runs to make it 4-0.
In the seventh, Albright put two more runners on base with
Micah Storms' leadoff single followed by Roth reaching on an error after two outs. A fly out to right ended that threat with the Lions still trailing, 4-0.
Albright scored in the bottom of the eighth after the first two hitters were retired.
Jeff Yordy walked, and
Tanner Brescancine singled to move Yordy to second. Brescancine went 3-for-4 with a double. Storms' second hit of the day brought home Yordy to make it 4-1. With the tying run at the plate in the form of
Noah Beebe, Schweizer got him to fly out to center field to end the inning. The Lions then went down in order in the bottom of the ninth.
Trevor Mastria pitched 3.2 innings of relief for the Lions, allowing just two hits while striking out seven hitters. He struck out four straight batters in the seventh and eighth innings, and he struck out the side in the top of the ninth.
Albright and Hood finish the series with a doubleheader at Hood tomorrow at noon.
