The Lancaster Bible baseball team split its second straight North Eastern Athletic Conference doubleheader on Friday as the Chargers defeated Penn College in game one, 13-10, but dropped game two, 9-2. Lancaster Bible is now 16-14 overall and 6-4 in conference action, while the Wildcats are 11-19 overall and 2-6 in NEAC play. 

Game 1
Lancaster Bible 13, Penn College 10
How it Happened: Game one can be thought of in two halves as the first 4 1/2 innings featured just four runs between the two teams, while the teams exploded for 19 runs in the final five innings. Penn College led 3-1 after 4 1/2 innings as Cole Hoffman highlighted the early innings with a two-run home run. Rylan Whitmyer turned a two-run Wildcats lead into a six-run lead thanks to his grand slam in the top of the sixth as Penn College took a 7-1 lead.

Lancaster Bible responded in the bottom half of the inning as a single from Will Welsh scored one run and another came in on an error and Erich Carroll, the next batter, smacked a two-run home run. Carroll's fourth home run of the season made it a 7-5 game and the Chargers weren't done as they scored four more runs in the bottom of the seventh to grab a 9-7 advantage. 

In the seventh, freshman Jensen King hit his first collegiate home run to cut the Chargers' deficit to one and after Braden Elliott reached base, junior Justin Taylor wrote his name into the Lancaster Bible record books as he set a new program record for home runs in a season with his 15th bomb of the year. The dinger made it 8-7 in favor of the Chargers and Adam Cohick homered later in the inning to stretch the advantage to 9-7. 

Un-phased, Penn College got a pinch-hit home run from Richard Lennon in the top of the eighth to make it 9-8 in favor of Lancaster Bible and then the Wildcats took the lead on a single, followed by an error that scored two runs. Trailing, 10-9 in the bottom of the eighth, the Chargers mounted a comeback of their own as Elliott tied the game with an RBI single and Taylor followed with a double that scored King to give the Chargers a one-run lead. A suicide-squeeze bunt by Welsh turned into an infield RBI single that made it 12-10 and Carroll added a sacrifice fly later in the inning to make it 13-10. Mitch Kumher pitched a scoreless ninth inning to notch is second save of the season.

Inside the Box Score: Elliott finished 4-for-5 with four runs scored...Taylor was 3-for-4 with three runs scored and three RBI...Welsh was 2-for-4 with three RBI and a run scored and Carroll also had three RBI and was 2-for-4...Lancaster Bible's 3-4-5 hitters were 7-for-12 with nine RBI and five runs scored in game one...Gabe Yoder earned his first win of the season...Lancaster Bible starter Frank McCreary went five innings and struck out four.

Game 2
Penn College 9, Lancaster Bible 2
How it Happened: The Wildcats scored once in the top of the first, but Taylor smashed his 16th home run of the season in the bottom half of the inning to knot the game at 1-1. Elliott's RBI single in the third inning gave the Chargers a 2-1 lead, but Lancaster Bible loaded the bases later in the inning with one out and could not convert the chance into any more runs and it ended up being a turning point in the game. 

From that point on, Penn College starter Bradley Walter got stronger and the Wildcat bats woke up as well. Penn College tied the game in the fifth inning and Cole Weachock put the Wildcats ahead for good as he crushed a three-run home run over left-center wall to give the visitors a 5-2 lead. A run later in the inning and a three-run double from Cole Hoffman made it 9-2 and the Chargers were forced to deal with the doubleheader split.

Inside the Box Score: Lancaster Bible starter Hunter Gray pitched well as he allowed just one hit in 4 1/3 innings, but he struggled with his command at times and fell to 1-2 this season...Taylor was 1-for-2 with a run scored and an RBI...Brian Niedergall was 1-for-2 with a run scored, while Elliott added two more hits.

Extra Bases: Lancaster Bible is now 2-3 all-time against Penn College...Taylor leads NCAA Division III with 16 homes and his 0.53 home runs per game is also tops in NCAA Division III.

Up Next: Lancaster Bible hosts Keuka on Saturday at 1 p.m.