Penn State Behrend Baseball Captures AMCC Regular Season Championship

The Behrend Lions captured their second straight AMCC regular season baseball title with a sweep of conference foe Hilbert College.  Behrend posted a 16-2 record in league play, wrapping up the #1 seed and the right to host the AMCC Championships on May 8-10.

The blue and white clinched a first place spot in the AMCC Championships with a 18-3 victory over the Hilbert Hawks in game one and a 14-6 win in game two.

In game one Behrend jumped out to a 2-0 lead before the Hawks scored two runs in the top of the second.  The Behrend Lions added a run in the bottom half of the inning to make it a 3-2 Behrend lead. 

Behrend then exploded for seven runs in the bottom of the third to put the game out of reach.  The Behrend Lions had five players with multiple hits including Blake Pavlik (Apollo/Kiski Area), who went 3-for-3 with a homerun and four RBI, and Harry Latta (Waterford/Fort LeBouef), who went 2-for-5 with a triple and three RBI.

Dave Koerbel (Pittsburgh/Central Catholic) pitched five innings giving up five hits while striking out nine.  Koerbel improved to a spotless 8-0 on the year.

In game two Behrend (26-7, 16-2) was down 2-0 entering the bottom of the second inning.  Dustin Dubensky (Punxsutawney/Punxsutawney) was hit by a pitch and then stole second and third, before Ryan Liddle (DuBois/DuBois) and Ryan Geibel (East Butler/Butler) each drove in a run to tie the game.  Liddle then scored on a double steal to put Behrend ahead 3-2 entering the third inning.

Starting pitcher Andrew Chrobak (New Castle/Laurel) was in command early, tossing nine strikeouts in his first four innings, and finished with 10 strikeouts against just one earned run in five innings of work.

In the bottom of the fourth the Behrend offense came alive, as the blue and white got the bases loaded with no outs, before Hilbert walked in a run to make it 4-2.  Then Rich Doyle (Pittsburgh/North Allegheny) stepped to the plate and blasted a 2-run single to put Behrend ahead 6-2.  The bases were loaded when Kessler's sacrifice fly made it 7-2.  Slugger Josh Fyffe (Fredonia/Sharpsville) then broke it open with a 2-run single for a 9-2 advantage.  David Miller (St. Marys/St. Marys) would later add a 2-run homerun, and Behrend cruised to a 14-6 victory.
 
Behrend will host Bethany on April 25 at 1:00 p.m. for a single nine inning game.