Brandywine Secures Top Spot In PSUAC East

POTTSVILLE, Pa. -- The Penn State Brandywine baseball team will be the No. 1 seed from the Penn State University Athletic Conference's Eastern Division when the league tournament starts on May 7 in Scranton after the Lions topped Penn State Schuylkill 3-1 in game one of a doubleheader on Saturday night. Schuylkill rallied to win the nightcap 6-3.

Brandywine (16-18, 12-3 PSUAC) and Schuylkill tied for the division title, but Brandywine earned the top seed by right of the tiebreaker after taking 2-of-3 games against Schuylkill this spring. Brandywine will face either the No. 2 or No. 3 seed from the west division on May 7 during its first game at the PSUAC Tournament.

Joe Samohod (Folsom, Pa./Ridley) earned his fourth win of the season after limiting Schuylkill to one run over 6.0 innings. Samohod, who struck out three, improved to 3-0 with a 1.33 ERA in four conference starts this spring.

Nate Forwood (Wilmington, Del./Mt. Pleasant) worked the seventh inning to earn his second save. He retired the first two batters he faced and worked around a pair of two-out singles by getting Korey Joseph to fly out to right field for the final out.

Brandywine needed just five hits to score its three runs. Trailing 1-0 in the third inning, Kevin Roche (Malvern, Pa./Chaminade College Prep) lined a single down the right field line, plating Robert Spitaletta (Glen Ridge, N.J./Glen Ridge) with the tying run.

Brandywine took the lead in the fifth as John Gorgone (Ridley, Pa./Ridley) and Spitaletta recorded back-to-back singles to open the frame and scored on Matt Masi's (West Chester, Pa./Cardinal O'Hara) base hit.

The Lions also held a 3-1 lead in game two, but Schuylkill scored five runs on three hits with two outs in the sixth to jump in front. Brandywine loaded the bases with two outs during its final at-bat, but could not force the tying run across the plate.

A RBI single from Kevin Dougherty (West Chester, Pa./Rustin) and an error gave Brandywine a 2-0 lead in the first and a wild pitch with the bases loaded in the sixth allowed Brett Sheeran (Springfield, Pa./Springfield) to score the Lions' third run.

Dougherty recorded two of Brandywine's four hits, while Bradley Ulmer (Newark, Del./St. George's Tech) pitched two scoreless innings in relief of Tyler Michaels (Aston, Pa./Sun Valley). Michaels gave up one run and struck out two as he went the first two innings on the mound. Kevin Sessa (Broomall, Pa./Cardinal O'Hara) suffered the loss after allowing five runs over the final two frames.