Brandywine Caps Regular Season With Sweep

ASTON, Pa. -- The Penn State Brandywine baseball team completed the regular season with a pair of victories on Monday afternoon, finishing off a three-game sweep of Penn State Scranton with home triumphs by scores of 8-1 and 6-0.

Game One: Penn State Brandywine 8, Penn State Scranton 1

Joe Hurley (Downingtown, Pa./Bishop Shanahan) tripled in Tom Donahue (Ridley, Pa./Cardinal O'Hara), who singled to start the game, and then scored on a wild pitch to give the Lions a 2-0 lead early in the opener. Brandywine added a third first-inning run on a groundout.

After Scranton got one run back in the second, the Lions used a bases-loaded hit-by-pitch and wild pitch to add two more scores in the third.

Ben Mutz (Swarthmore, Pa./Strath Haven) tacked on a sacrifice fly in the fifth, while Hurley doubled in Nick Kutufaris (Springfield, Pa./Cardinal O'Hara) to make the score 8-1 in the sixth. Kutufaris had reached on an error, allowing Donahue to score after he led off with a triple.

Brandywine stole nine bases in as many attempts, topped by three from Kutufaris, who scored a pair of runs. Hurley and Donahue both crossed home twice, posted two hits and stole a base.

Derek Cappadoccia (Scotch Plains, N.J./Scotch Plains) struck out four and allowed just one unearned run in three innings to start the game, earning his third win of the season. Mutz, Hurley and Chris Edwards (West Chester, Pa./West Chester East) combined to limit Scranton to one hit during the next four innings in relief of Cappadoccia.

Game Two: Penn State Brandywine 6, Penn State Scranton 0

Brandywine was busy on the base paths again in game two, stealing seven more bases. Three of those thefts came from Nick Wright (Aston, Pa./Sun Valley) who also tallied one of the Lions' six hits. Kutufaris registered a pair of knocks, scored once and drove in a run.

Two Brandywine pitchers combined for a five-hit shutout as Ricky Palmer (Levittown, Pa./Pennsbury) held the visitors to three hits in five innings to earn the win and Kevin Sessa (Broomall, Pa./Marple Newtown) went the final two frames, allowing two hits. Palmer fanned five hitters, while Sessa struck out three.

Kutufaris' RBI single broke a scoreless game in the third inning, beginning a five-run inning for the Lions. Hurley and Joey Buoni (Chester Heights, Pa./Salesianum) added back-to-back run-scoring doubles, while two more runs scored via a Scranton error. Scranton's second miscue of the day allowed Hurley to score from third for the Lions' final run in the fifth.

Brandywine (19-15, 10-5 PSUAC) will be the No. 3 seed from the PSUAC East Division in the conference tournament, which begins Friday. The Lions will play an elimination game at No. 2 Penn State Schuylkill at a time still to be determined.