With the NCCAA Division II East Region Tournament this Saturday, it would have been easy for the Lancaster Bible College baseball team to overlook their Wednesday doubleheader with Penn State-York. 

Someone should have told the LBC freshman relievers about that. Tim Landis Jr., Caleb Erb, Richard Westerlund and Frank DiFilippo combined to throw nine innings in relief and hold the Nittany Lions at bay, guiding the Chargers to back-to-back 4-3 victories.

Landis relieved game one starter Ben Markey and threw three innings of shutout ball. Entering the day, Landis had an ERA of 16.20, after his three scoreless innings, it stood at 5.79. His solid work on the mound gave the LBC (14-14) offense time to wake up.

Steve Jacques' third hit of game one drove in Drew Tilley and extended the Chargers' lead to 3-1. Jacques scored on a wild pitch two batters later, making it 4-1. Jacques gave the two runs back in the seventh, but Erb shut the door for his third save of the season.

Game two played out much of the same way as the Chargers' offense struggled, but did just enough to take a 4-1 lead into the seventh again. Westerlund, who pitched 3 1/3 innings of one-hit ball, got the first out of the seventh, but walked PSU-York's Trevor Neff. DiFilippo came in and allowed a two-run home run to Tyler Page. The next two batters also reached base, but after a pop-up and a ground out, the Chargers were back at .500.

Chad Hollinger was 2-for-2 in game two, upping his season batting average to .377. His hits give him 26 for the season, making him the sixth LBC player to top the 25-hit mark this season.

Westerlund's win in game two gives him four for the season despite only pitching 14 innings this season.

The Chargers are the number one seed in this Saturday's East Region Tournament. They will face the fourth seeded Defenders from Baptist Bible College at 9:00 a.m. at Stumpf Field in Lancaster. Valley Forge Christian College will face Philadelphia Biblical University in the other semi-final at 12:00 p.m. The winners will meet in the East Region Final at 3:00 p.m. The winner earns an automatic berth in the NCCAA Division II World Series in Mason, Ohio during the second week of May.

Notes:
-Erb had an RBI in game one, increasing his season total to 34, eight better than Lou Curcio, who has 26.

-Curcio started game two and pitched three shutout innings. His team-leading ERA is 3.28.