The fate of the 2017 Lancaster Bible College baseball season may have turned in a matter of two minutes on Thursday at Charger Field. After dropping game one of a doubleheader to Penn College, 6-2, the Chargers trailed late in game two, but rallied for six runs in the eighth inning to grab a 10-7 victory. Lancaster Bible is now 15-11 overall and 5-6 in North Eastern Athletic Conference play, while Penn College, the top team in the NEAC, is 19-8 overall and 9-3 in conference play.

Penn College 6, Lancaster Bible 2 -- Game 1
How it Happened: After getting on the board in the second inning, Penn College scored three times in the third inning, highlighted by Evan Vigna's two-run double that gave the Wildcats a 3-0 lead at the time. The Chargers got a run back and made it 4-1 in the bottom of the third on a sacrifice fly by Braden Elliott, but Penn College tacked on a run in both the fifth and sixth innings to make it 6-1. Senior Justin Taylor blasted a home run in the bottom half of the sixth inning, but Lancaster Bible couldn't rally any further and dropped game one, 6-2.

Inside the Box Score: The Chargers had just five hits in game one, two of them coming off the bat of Will Welsh...Welsh, who would do more damage later in the afternoon, was the only Lancaster Bible player with two hits, as Justin Taylor, Brian Niedergall and Sam Taylor had the other hits for the Chargers...Ben Flicker and Vigna each drove in two runs for the Wildcats...Lancaster Bible starter Nate Burns didn't pitch poorly, but ran into trouble too many times and was lifted after 4 1/3 innings...Relievers Tyler Greenly, Kyle Ebersole and Jesse Carver allowed just one earned run the rest of the way for the Chargers...Max Bair went the distance for Penn College as he was excellent and allowed just five hits and struck out five.

Lancaster Bible 10, Penn College 7 -- Game 2
How it Happened: Penn College scored first again in game two as the Wildcats got on the board in the second inning, but Justin Taylor blasted his second home run of the day in the third inning to tie the game at 1-1. Richard Lennon hit a two-run home run in the fourth to restore Penn College's lead, but Lancaster Bible answered again, as Josh Mayer crushed a two-run home run of his own in the bottom of the fifth. 

Though the teams were scoring runs, both starting pitchers, Zack Leonard for Lancaster Bible and Bradley Walter for Penn College, were mowing down hitters. Leonard, who pitched 7+ innings, struck out a season-high 11 batters, while Walter struck out six in 6 1/3 innings of work.

Josh Mayer connected for his fourth hit of the day in the seventh inning and drove in JJ Sanchez as the Chargers took a 4-3 lead. Penn College answered back and had three straight singles to lead off the eighth, which chased Leonard. The Wildcats tied the game on a sacrifice fly and Richard Lennon smashed his second home run of the game, this one a three-run home run, to give Penn College a 7-4 lead.

Seeing their NEAC playoff lives potentially flash before their eyes, the Chargers made it 7-5 after Sam Taylor reached on an error and Jensen King scored and after loading the bases with two outs, Justin Taylor strolled to the plate. Taylor hit the ball hard, but right at shortstop Noah Esposito. Esposito flipped the ball to second baseman James Simasek who was covering second base, but somehow the ball eluded Simasek's glove and rolled into shallow right field. Sam Taylor and Braden Elliott scored to tie the game at 7-7, while Mayer advanced to third to put runners on the corners with two away.

Enter Will Welsh.

Welsh, who was 0-for-4 leading up to his at-bat in the eighth, stepped to the plate, but called time prior to the first pitch to get a change of the sign from Head Coach TJ Horn. Horn had initially put the "bunt for a hit" sign down for Welsh with the third baseman playing so far back, but Horn thought better of it and gave Welsh the sign to swing away. And swing away he did as Welsh crushed the first pitch he saw from Devon Sanders over the center field wall to give the Chargers a 10-7 lead. 

Justin Taylor moved from shortstop to the mound in the ninth to earn his second save of the season and more importantly, keep the Chargers' NEAC playoff hopes alive.

Inside the Box Score: Lancaster Bible had 11 hits in game two and Mayer had four of them, as he went 4-for-4 with a walk and also drove in three runs and scored twice...Justin Taylor was 1-for-4 with a walk, two runs scored and an RBI...King and Sanchez had a hit and a run for the Chargers, while Adam Cohick and Beau Heagy also had hits in game two...Leonard allowed eight hits in 7+ innings and had the aforementioned 11 strikeouts...Senior Gabe Yoder pitched the eighth inning and though he gave up an earned run, earned his first win of the season...Lennon finished game two, 2-for-4 with six RBI and two runs scored.

Information Hodge Podge: Lancaster Bible is now 3-4 all-time against Penn College...Welsh's home run was his 10th of the season as he continues to lead the NEAC...Leonard's 11 K's give him 60 strikeouts this season.

Up Next: Lancaster Bible heads to upstate New York this weekend as the Chargers face Keuka on Saturday and Wells on Sunday.