PITTSBURGH, Pa. - The La Roche University baseball team (8-0, 8-0) defeated conference foe Penn St. Behrend (12-5, 5-3) in two games Saturday afternoon at the John Arnold Sr. Memorial Field on La Roche's campus. The Redhawks took game one 2-1 and game two 6-4. LRU is off to their first 8-0 start in conference play since 2017.
Game One - La Roche 2, Penn St. Behrend 1
The first game of the afternoon was a pitching battle between AMCC Preseason Pitcher of the Year junior Thomas Zbezinski and junior Zack Oddi. Both Zbezinski and Oddi went the distance and pitched complete games. Zbezinski was 3-0 this season heading into game one. Oddi pitched all 7.0 innings, giving up just five hits and one earned run. The LRU defense made some great plays in the field and committed zero errors. At the plate, the Redhawks batted 4-22 (.182) and Behrend went 5-23 (.217).
Tristan Tinney recorded an RBI in the bottom of the second inning on a ground out to score Philip Pieto. In his first game this season, Pieto went 1-3 and scored a run. Freshman Ben Dottle knocked in the Redhawks winning run in the bottom of the fourth inning on an RBI single to right field. Jason Swope and Austin Hoffman also registered a hit a piece.
Game Two - La Roche 6, Penn St. Behrend 4
The Lions struck first in game two on an RBI double to left field to make it 1-0 game. Tristan Tinney tied things up in the top of the fourth with an RBI double to center field to score Swope. The very next play, Mason Brooks hit a 2-run single to score Tinney and Pieto and give the Redhawks a 3-1 lead.
Behrend scored two runs in the top of the fifth on back-to-back doubles to take a one run lead. Then in the bottom of the sixth, Freshman Ben Dottle knocked in two-runs and reached first base on an error to give LRU a 5-4 lead. Austin Hoffman was walked with the bases loaded to score one more run.
Junior Jackson Rogers picked up his first collegiate win on the mound for LRU. Rogers came into the game in the bottom of the sixth when the Redhawks were down 4-3. In 3.0 innings, Rogers allowed just three hits, no earned runs and struckout a batter. Starting pitcher Shawn Marcellus went 5.0 innings and had five strikeouts, five walks and four earned runs. Senior Mike Nuzzo came in to close out the game in the final inning. Nuzzo struckout the final batter of the day to get his second career save in a Redhawks uniform.
Three Redhawks recorded two hits (Mason Brooks, Philip Pieto and Tristan Tinney). LRU batted 9-29 (.310) in game two while Behrend batted .286 (10-35).
PSB committed five errors in the field while La Roche committed zero.
La Roche also worked out of multiple jams as Penn St. Behrend left 16 runners on base. LRU left seven.
Up Next
The Redhawks are back at it again Monday, April 19th at home in a conference doubleheader against Pitt Greensburg. Game one is set to start at 1:00 p.m.
