Baseball Championship Recap: DuBois Captures Crown
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Day two of the Penn State University Athletic Conference Baseball Tournament got underway Monday morning, with three teams still in the hunt for the 2018 title.
Penn State Brandywine and Penn State Wilkes-Barre both face elimination in their game, but one gets to advance to the championship game against Penn State DuBois at 1:30 p.m. DuBois must win one game to earn the championship, while their opponents will have to pull off the three game sweep on the day to win.
Penn State Brandywine - 4, Penn State Wilkes-Barre - 2
Wilkes-Barre got off to a great start, posting two runs in the top of the first inning against Brandywine's Tyler Michaels. Leroy Fettig singled to plate a run, but the ball got passed the center fielder and went to the wall. Both baserunners would score and Fettig would end up at third as Wilkes-Barre took a 2-0 lead.
Brandywine would answer in the second inning as Joey Buoni singled to put the Lions on the board. In the third, conference Player of the Year Matt Masi would put Brandywine ahead for good with a 2-run homer off the roof of the left field suite at Showers Field. Michaels would settle in the rest of the way, allowing only four hits on the day and just one earned run while striking out five.
Brandywine advances to the championship game against Penn State DuBois at 1:30 p.m. at Showers Field. The Lions must win two games to become champions as they look for their first championship since 2002.
Penn State DuBois - 10, Penn State Brandywine - 2
DuBois (27-10, 14-1 PSUAC) took advantage of their rest to cruise to a 10-2 win over Brandywine (20-18, 11-4 PSUAC) to capture the 2018 PSUAC Tournament Championship on Monday afternoon. The Lions took an early 3-0 lead and never looked back, slowly tacking on runs to expand their lead over Brandywine, who had already played an elimination game on the day.
Talon Falls and Joey DiPietro each had three hits on the day, while DiPietro and Clayton Butler each drove in three runs for DuBois. All three players also homered for the championship club, joined by teammate Brandon Gettig.
Logan Johnson threw 4 2/3 innings in relief of starter Austin Amacher, getting out of multiple bases loaded jams with minimal damage. Despite striking out only one Brandywine batter, the DuBois defense stepped up in a well played defensive effort.
Brandywine's Matt Masi and Chris Skahill each had two hits for the Lions, with one of Masi's driving in a run in the fourth to cut the DuBois lead to 5-2. It was as close as Brandywine would get as DuBois won their first conference crown in their short three-year history as a program.
DuBois will receive the PSUAC's automatic bid into the United States Collegiate Athletic Association tournament, set to begin next Sunday, May 13th with the Home Run Derby. First round games begin Monday, May 14th at Showers Field in DuBois, Pa.