The Lancaster Bible baseball team, playing in the North Eastern Athletic Conference Playoffs for the first time in program history, played well for the first 7 1/2 innings of Sunday's NEAC Semifinals, but the wheels fell off a bit late in the game and the Chargers lost to Penn St. Berks, 7-5. The loss ends the season for the Chargers as they finished with a program-best 21-16 record, while Penn St. Berks defeated Penn St. Abington, 11-7, later in the day and won the NEAC Championship for the second time in three seasons.

How it Happened: Lancaster Bible got on the board in the top of the first as Erich Carroll singled with two on and two out to score Braden Elliott, while Justin Taylor advanced to third after he singled earlier in the inning. Sophomore Hunter Gray followed with another single on a 1-2 pitch and gave the Chargers an early 2-0 advantage. 

The Chargers maintained their lead until the third inning when Penn St. Berks scored twice to knot the game at 2-2. Lancaster Bible starter Zack Leonard and Penn St. Berks starter Sean Pavlik took the game over from there as the two of them went scoreless inning for scoreless inning. 

Lancaster Bible finally broke through in the seventh inning as Josh Mayer singled, followed by a ground-rule double from Jensen King, to put runners on second and third base with one out. The Chargers then executed a perfect suicide-squeeze bunt as Elliott pushed the ball down the first base line to score Mayer from third. King scored on a wild pitch during the next at-bat to give Lancaster Bible a two-run lead at 4-2. 

Penn St. Berks got a run back in the bottom half of the seventh to cut its deficit to 4-3 and the Chargers wasted a golden opportunity in the top half of the eighth to keep the score that way headed to the bottom of the inning. In the top of the eighth, the Chargers loaded the bases with no one out, but were unable to score as Pavlik showed why he was named NEAC Pitcher of the Year and struck out the next two batters, before inducing a groundout to end the inning.

The lack of runs would come back to haunt the Chargers in the bottom of the eighth as Berks scored four runs. The Nittany Lions loaded the bases with one out, but Lancaster Bible reliever Gabe Yoder struck the next batter out and set the stage for a late-inning showdown with Keeanu Erb of Penn St. Berks. Erb drew a bases-loaded walk to tie the game at 4-4 and the Nittany Lions took the lead, 5-4, during the next at-bat due to a wild pitch. An error later in the inning allowed the Nittany Lions to score two more runs and they took a 7-4 lead into the ninth inning.

The Chargers would not go quietly, as Taylor tripled with one out for his fourth hit of the game and scored on a single from Will Welsh to make it 7-5. After an out, Gray knocked his third hit of the game to put the tying run at first base, but Pavlik was able to get Adam Cohick to pop out and Berks was headed to the NEAC Final.

Inside the Box Score: The Chargers actually out-hit the Nittany Lions, 13-10...Taylor finished 4-for-5 with two runs scored as he finished the 2016 season with a .461 batting average and 65 hits...His 65 hits were four short of the program record, but he did surpass 300 total bases for his career on Sunday and finished with 31 extra-base hits this season, including an NCAA Division III-leading 17 home runs...Hunter Gray was 3-for-5 on Sunday with an RBI...Jensen King was 1-for-5 with a run scored...Senior Erich Carroll capped his career with a 2-for-4 effort with an RBI...Josh Mayer, Adam Cohick and Will Welsh also added hits for the Chargers...Zack Leonard threw seven strong innings as he scattered eight hits and allowed just three runs while striking out two.

Extra Bases: 2016 marks just the sixth time in program history the Chargers have finished .500 or better...The last time Lancaster Bible was over .500 was in 2005 when the team was 13-11...The other four times the Chargers were over .500 were 1980, '81, '94, '95.