The Lancaster Bible College baseball team returned to North Eastern Athletic Conference play on Tuesday and battled through two hard-fought games to earn a split with Penn St. Abington. The Chargers dropped game one, 10-6, but recovered and hung on for a 12-11 victory in game two. Lancaster Bible is now 12-7 overall this season and 2-2 in NEAC play, while the Nittany Lions are 4-17 overall and 3-1 in conference play.

Penn St. Abington 10, Lancaster Bible 6 -- Game 1
How it Happened: Lancaster Bible took an early 2-0 lead on a two-run blast by sophomore Will Welsh in the first inning and eventually extended its lead to 3-1 and then 5-1 on a two-run home run by senior Justin Taylor. Penn St. Abington got on run back in the fourth and after the Chargers went down in order in the fourth, the Nittany Lions turned the tide in the top half of the fifth.

After Tyler DiPatri singled to lead off the fifth, Lancaster Bible starter Nate Burns got Matt Meyers looking for the first out of the inning. The pitch appeared to be close, but Meyers and Penn St. Abington Head Coach Joe Pavlow didn't like the call. Meyers retreated to the dugout, but Pavlow held an extended conversation with the home plate umpire and helped fire the Nittany Lion dugout. With Penn St. Abington back into it, Austin Mikula singled and after a fielder's choice produced the second out, Trey Guaglionona took a fastball and put it over the center field wall to knot the game at 5-5. 

Welsh hit an RBI double to help the Chargers regain the lead, 6-5 in the bottom of the fifth, but Lancaster Bible had the bases loaded with one out and couldn't score again, so despite re-taking the lead, the Chargers entered the sixth inning with a sour taste. The Nittany Lions took advantage and scored twice in the sixth and then three more times in the seventh, as Lancaster Bible couldn't mount a comeback and lost, 10-6.

Inside the Box Score: Welsh finished 2-for-4 with three RBI in game one, while Justin Taylor was 2-for-4 with two RBI...Josh Mayer was 2-for-3 with two runs and a walk...Braden Elliott was 2-for-3, while Jensen King, Adam Cohick and Brian Niedergall also had hits...Burns went 4 2/3 innings, scattering seven hits and allowing four earned runs, while striking out three...Guaglionona finished 3-for-5 with three RBI and two runs scored.


Lancaster Bible 12, Penn St. Abington 11 -- Game 2
How it Happened: For the second straight game, Lancaster Bible opened the scoring via a two-run home run from Welsh in the bottom of the first. Penn St. Abington got a run back in the second off starter Zack Leonard and then added three more in the third to take a 4-2 lead. Freshman Matt Taylor and junior JJ Sanchez drew bases loaded walks in the bottom half of the third inning to tie the game at 4-4 and a two-run double by Niedergall later in the inning gave the Chargers a 6-4 advantage.

The Nittany Lions cut the deficit to 6-5 in the fourth inning, but RBI singles from Niedergall and Mayer gave the Chargers an 8-5 lead after five innings. The score remained the same until the bottom of the eighth (NEAC doubleheaders are a seven-inning game one and nine-inning game two), when Welsh homered again and Niedergall hit a 3-run home later in the inning to give the Chargers a 12-5 lead.

While the lead seemed comfortable, things got very interesting in the top of the ninth.

The first three batters reached base in the ninth and DiPatri strolled to the plate and cleared the bases with a grand slam blast that was crushed to right-center. After a groundout, Julio Aira hit a solo home run to make it a 12-10 game with just one out. Freshman Dan Zimmerman came on to pitch following the Aira home run and after a strikeout produced the second out, Guaglionona and Chris Hartman reached base.

Austin Mikula pinch hit and drove in Guaglionona with a single and advanced Hartman to third. With the tying run just 90 feet away, Zimmerman struck out Nike Yurchak to end the game as the Chargers made a great escape.

Inside the Box Score: Niedergall finished 3-for-4 with six RBI and a run scored...Welsh was 2-for-5 with three runs scored and three RBI...Matt Taylor was 1-for-3 with two runs scored and an RBI...Sanchez drew four walks and scored a run...Mayer was 2-for-3 with a run scored, an RBI and a walk...Cohick finished 1-for-3 with two runs scored...Starter Zack Leonard threw six innings and scattered five hits, while allowing just two earned runs and striking out nine.

Information Hodge Podge: Lancaster Bible is now 3-12 all-time against Penn St. Abington...The six RBI for Niedergall are a career-high...The Chargers have 19 home runs as a team this season, while the rest of the teams in the NEAC have a combined 18 home runs.

Up Next: Lancaster Bible will play an exhibition game against the Lancaster Barnstormers on Thursday at 5 p.m. at Clipper Magazine Stadium, before returning to NEAC play on Saturday in Washington, D.C. against Gallaudet.