READING, Pa. – Baseball (17-20-1, 7-13 MAC Commonwealth) began their final series of the season against Hood (15-22, 9-11 MAC Commonwealth) on Friday afternoon with a doubleheader at Kelchner Field. The Lions took both games by scores of 9-4 and 4-3.
Game 1: W, 9-4
The Lions struck first in the second inning with
Michael Avino reaching on an infield single before
Chris Gorla came around to score following a throwing error.
Albright would come through again in the third and fourth innings with seven more runs to build an 8-0 lead going into the fifth inning.
Anthony Knight picked up RBIs in both innings with a single and a double.
Christian Eckstein,
Nathan Golden and
Tyler Boccelli would all contribute with fourth inning RBIs and ended up on base a combined five times.
After the Hood offense broke through in the fifth,
Plyler Hunter would add an insurance run in the seventh inning on a sacrifice fly for the game's final run.
Wayne Hudson earned his second win of the season while
CJ Easler picked up a save out of the bullpen.
Game 2: W, 4-3
The Blazers accounted for the game's first run before the Lions struck back with two unanswered beginning with a no doubter homerun from Gorla in the second inning.
Seth Strecker would take advantage of a wild pitch the following inning to give the Lions a 2-1 lead after the third.
After hood struck back in the sixth inning with a pair of runs, Albright found themselves in a do or die situation in the final innings.
Boccelli would place a bunt perfectly to reach with an infield hit while Golden scored from third to tie the game (3-3).
Gorla would then come through with a base hit up the middle to score Boccelli to retake the lead. The Junior finished game two with three hits and a pair of RBIs with his 100
th hit coming when it mattered most.
Patrick Ahearn earned his second win of the season and pitched 3.2 innings out of the bullpen and helped the Lions get out of a bases loaded jam in the sixth inning.
Up Next:
The Lions conclude their regular season with a final game against the Blazers on Sunday (4/26) at 3:00 pm.
