A day after errors, poor pitching and trouble on the base paths cost them a game to Philadelphia Biblical University, the Lancaster Bible College baseball team re-grouped and played two of its better games of the year on Thursday. Unfortunately, Penn State Berks continues to have the Chargers' number and took both games of a doubleheader, winning game one, 4-2 in nine innings and game two, 4-0.

Game one featured two great pitching performances. Berks' Ryan Tantala and LBC's Josh Chamberlin both pitched into the ninth inning, with Tantala earning his first win of the season.

The Chargers (9-12) took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first after BJ Boosz doubled and Frank DiFilippo singled him home. Catcher Rob Kuhmer came up a batter later and singled in DiFilippo who had advanced to second, making the score 2-0.

It stayed that way until the top of the fourth when Penn State Berks loaded the bases. Two fielder's choices later and the game was tied at 2-2. Chamberlin held the Nittany Lions' bats silent due to his knuckleball and Tantala kept LBC batters guessing, mixing his pitches very well.

With runners on second and third and one out in the top half of the ninth inning, Berks' Geraldo Garcia singled home Kevin Heilman, giving the Nittany Lions their first lead of the game.  Kyle Hartman followed with a double, scoring Aaron Wilkins and doubling the lead to 4-2.

The Chargers brought the tying run to the plate in the bottom of the ninth, but could not score.

"They are a good team," Chargers' Head Coach T.J. Horn said of Penn State Berks. "We played hard today, we just got beat by a better team."

Horn said the Chargers played so much better on Thursday due to the attention to the little things.

"We cut the mental errors and we were smart on the base paths," Horn said. "The pitchers kept their heads too."

LBC's game two starter, Dan Merson ran into trouble early, but settled down to have his best pitching performance of the season. Berks scored twice in each of the first two innings to take a 4-0 lead, but did not have another hit the rest of the game. They only had one more baserunner as well, when Garcia walked in the fourth.

The Chargers did not fair much better, recording just two hits in game two, one in the third inning and one in the seventh. Three Berks pitchers, Colby Hendrix, David Loose and Brent Rhoads, combined on a two-hitter, walking one, while striking out seven.

Sean Westerlund and Chamberlin had hits for the Chargers, who despite two losses, played much better against Berks on Thursday than they have the previous two seasons. LBC lost 25-2 and 14-3 in 2009 and 10-2 and 13-5 last season.

Horn said the progress made on Thursday should hopefully carry over to Saturday when the team hosts NCCAA East Region rival Valley Forge Christian.

"We need to play all seven innings like we did today and we can't leave guys on base," Horn said. "Chamberlin and Merson stepped up today, we need guys to keep doing that for us."

First pitch of Saturday's doubleheader is scheduled for 12 p.m.

Notes:
-LBC is now 1-13 all-time against Penn State Berks.

-DiFilippo did not play game two due to the flu. With his 2-for-4 game one performance, he raised his batting average to .414. The last LBC player to finish the season with a .400 or better batting average was T.J. Horn in 2008 when he hit .495.

-LBC has defeated Valley Forge Christian three straight times.