Lions Rally Past York; Topped By Schuylkill On First Day Of PSUAC Tournament

SCHUYLKILL HAVEN, Pa. -- Third-seeded Penn State Brandywine rallied from five runs down to defeat second-seeded Penn State York 11-5 to avoid elimination, but the Lions were edged 5-4 by top-seeded Penn State Schuylkill during their second game of the Penn State University Athletic Conference Baseball Tournament Saturday afternoon.

Game One: Penn State Brandywine 11, Penn State York 5

Brandywine spotted York a 5-0 first inning lead, but Michael Govan (Newtown Square, Pa./Marple Newtown) limited York to just one base runner during the final 6.2 innings and the Lions' offense rallied to eliminate York from the postseason.

Govan relieved Connor Thompson (Finksburg, Md./Westminster) with one out in the first inning and retired 20 of the 21 batters he faced the rest of the way to earn the win on the mound. He yielded just a fifth-inning single, which was quickly erased via double play, and struck out two York batters.

Cam Baughman (Oxford, Pa./Oxford) got the Brandywine comeback started in the third with his team-leading sixth home run of the season, a two-run shot.

The Lions scored two more runs in the fifth as Sam Benvignati (Aston, Pa./Archbishop Carroll) doubled in a pair before taking the lead for good one frame later.

Singles from Evan Shade (Green Lane, Pa./Upper Perkiomen) and Ryan Snyder (Aston, Pa./Sun Valley) put two runners on base for Evan Abegg (Commerce City, Colo./Prairie View), who lined a single to tie the count. Two batters later, Mike DeGirolamo (Frederick, Md./Frederick) delivered a two-run single to put Brandywine on top.

Brandywine put the game away by scoring four times in the seventh. Toby Skeans (Stevensville, Md./Kent Island) doubled in two runs and came around to score on Snyder's two-run home run, his first of the season.

Snyder and Benvignati both posted three hits, while Abegg, Baughman, Skeans and Ryan Brown (Bensalem, Pa./Bensalem) each produced a pair of knocks. Brandywine tallied 17 hits overall, compared to just five for York.

Game Two: Penn State Schuylkill 5, Penn State Brandywine 4

Brandywine held a 2-1 edge heading to the bottom of the third inning, but Schuylkill scored three times and held off the Lions to win 5-4.

An error and Abegg's sacrifice fly yielded a pair of third inning runs for the Lions before Schuylkill struck for three runs during the bottom of the frame as the hosts needed just one hit to take a 4-2 edge. Schuylkill added an insurance run in the fifth to up its lead to three runs.

Back-to-back run-scoring groundouts from Benvignati and Brown brought Brandywine within one in the sixth. The Lions put the potential tying run on first base in the seventh with two outs, but a groundout ended the rally.

Snyder added two more hits in game two. Jaylen Bryant (Brooklyn, N.Y./High School of Telecommunications) received the loss after allowing four runs on three hits and striking out two in 2.2 innings. Thompson recorded one strikeout and surrendered one run in 2.2 frames, while Ty Coccia (West Chester, Pa./West Chester East) rolled a double-play ground ball to end the sixth inning.

Brandywine (23-14) will play another elimination game on Sunday, May 5 against an opponent still to be determined from the West Division in State College beginning at 11:00 AM.