Seeds
- La Roche
- Penn State Behrend
- Penn State Altoona
- Mt. Aloysius
- Alfred State
- Pitt-Greensburg
Schedule, Results, Links
AMCC Tournament Preview
The 2019 AMCC baseball championship tournament kicks off this weekend with first round games to take place on Saturday, May 4 and Sunday, May 5 (if needed). #6 Pitt-Greensburg will travel to #3 Penn St. Altoona, while #4 Mount Aloysius College will host #5 Alfred State College in first round action. La Roche University won the regular season title and hosting rights for the sixth consecutive year, as the Redhawks will host the championship round on May 9-11 in Pittsburgh, PA. #1 La Roche and #2 Penn St. Behrend will each receive first round byes.
Top-seeded La Roche (24-11, 16-2 AMCC) is looking for their sixth straight, and seventh overall, conference tournament championship. The Redhawks are led offensively by senior catcher Joe Professori who leads both the team and and the conference with a .399 batting average. Professori also ranks second in the league with 43 RBI and is tied for first with nine home runs. Senior outfielder Jonathan Spina ranks fifth in the AMCC with a .384 batting average while his 15 stolen bases are fourth-best in the league. Junior pitcher Tre Thomas' 1.79 ERA is second in the AMCC while sophomore Travis Holman's 58 strikeouts leads all AMCC pitchers.
2 Penn St. Behrend (23-12, 12-6 AMCC) is looking for their first conference title since the 2013 season. Senior 2B Scott Sada leads the Lions offensively with a .373 batting average and is tops in the conference with 21 stolen bases. Freshman infielder Joshua Wagner leads both the Lions and the AMCC with 46 RBI. On the mound, freshman Thomas Zbezinski ranks first in the conference with seven wins while also ranking fourth with a 2.86 ERA and 47 strikeouts. Senior Phil Myers has six wins on the season, while ranking third in the conference with a 2.63 ERA.
Coming in as the #3 seed is Penn St. Altoona (24-14, 12-6 AMCC). Leading the Altoona offense are juniors Hunter Breon and Chase Clouser. Breon finished the regular season with a .354 batting average and 16 stolen bases, while Clouser ranks fifth in the conference with 39 RBI and six home runs. Junior Zane Leister leads the Lion pitchers with four wins and a 3.29 ERA.
Mount Aloysius (25-13, 12-6 AMCC) enters the tournament as the #4 seed. Senior INF Matthew McCourt is tied for tops in the conference with nine home runs, while ranking third with a .393 batting average and fourth with 40 RBI. Junior INF Sam Keibler's 42 RBI are third-best in the league, while his seven home runs are tied for third. Junior Michael McCourt leads the Mountie pitching staff with six wins, a 2.91 ERA and 43 strikeouts on the season.
The Alfred State Pioneers make their first appearance in the AMCC tournament as the #5 seed. Junior C Colin Johnson leads the Pioneer offense, and ranks fourth in the AMCC, with a .393 batting average, while teammate Danny Doran is tied for second in the league with seven home runs. Senior Garrett Mack leads all AMCC pitchers with a staggering 1.61 ERA in 56 innings pitched. Mack also has five wins on the year and 51 strikeouts.
Rounding out the field is sixth seed Pitt-Greensburg. Offensively, the Bobcats are led by sophomore OF Ben Green with a .350 batting average and five home runs. Sophomore Andy Prentice leads his team on the mound with four wins and a 3.25 ERA.
AMCC Baseball Tournament First Round Games
Day 1
First round games open up on Saturday at 1:00 p.m. with #6 Pitt-Greensburg traveling to #3 Penn St. Altoona and #4 Mount Aloysius hosting #5 Alfred State. Click here for the complete tournament schedule.
#3 Penn State Altoona baseball used a pair of dramatic victories on Saturday afternoon at Stewart Athletic Field to win this weekend's Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference Tournament first round, best-of-three series over #6 Pitt-Greensburg. Right down the road in Cresson, PA, #5 Alfred State College and #4 Mount Aloysius College split a doubleheader on Saturday in a first round AMCC tournament series. The Pioneers took the opener 5-1 and the Mounties won a wild 14-13 game to force a deciding game three.
In game one, Penn State Altoona (26-14) overcame a late, one-run deficit by scoring two runs in the bottom of the sixth to leap ahead and win 4-3. In game two, the Lions came back to win 8-7 in extra innings, getting a walk-off, two-out RBI single from George Stiuso. The Lions will start the championship round with a matchup against No. 2 seed Penn State Behrend on Thursday, May 9 at 1:00pm.
The Pioneers' Andrew Santobuono continued his impressive first collegiate season with a complete game victory in the opener. He allowed just one run on eight hits. He struck out six and didn't walk a batter.
The night cap proved that both teams were in it to win it and the Mounties were not ready for their season to end quite yet. A wild, high-scoring back-and-forth game had the final score set in the 8th inning when Mount Aloysius' Doug Smith hit a two-out double to center to give the Mounties back the lead 14-13.
The deciding game three of the series will take place on Sunday with a scheduled 11am first pitch. The winner of the series will take on #1 seed La Roche University on Thursday as the AMCC Final Four starts.
Day 2
#4 Mount Aloysius College and #5 Alfred State College battled in an epic game three of their AMCC Tournament 1st round series. The Mounties rallied from an early deficit and won a 14-13 in a 11-inning contest. Mount Aloysius advances to the AMCC Final Four later this week.
In the 11th, Mount Aloysius' Ryan Leonard led off the inning by drawing a walk. Pinch runner Trevor Millerwent to second on a sac bunt and then to third on a ground out. With two outs, he was able to scamper home on a passed ball to give the Mounties the victory.
The Pioneers jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the 1st inning. Mount Aloysius' Jeremy Iellimo collected a RBI single in the bottom of the 1st to make it 5-1 but Alfred State put together another five run inning in the 4th to make it 10-1. The Pioneers' Josh Laurie hit a two-run single through the right side, Colin Johnson drove in a pair with a double, and Tim Holler collected a RBI ground out.
The Mounties would score the next 11 runs of the game. Leonard collected a two run single up the middle in the 4th and Sam Keibler hit a two run homer to right in the 5th to make it 10-5. In the 6th, Mt. Aloysius scored five more to tie it up at 10-10. Patrick Mahon and Matthew McCourt hit RBI singles, Doug Smith hit a sac fly, and Keibler tied it with a two-run single. In the 7th, Mahon hit a RBI triple to right center and scored on a McCourt single to center.
Johnson stopped the Mounties run and tied the game up in the 8th when he hit a two-run triple to right center. He scored on a RBI single to right by Connor Pingitore to make it 13-12. In the bottom of the 8th, the Mount's Daniel Singer tied the game back up with a one-out RBI single through the left side.
The Pioneers had a pair of runners on in the 9th but were able to score while the Mounties had the would-be winning run thrown out at home to end the 9th. Both teams got a lead-off runner on in the 10th but could not break the tie. In the top of the 11th, Jack Henby collected a one-out single but Michael McCourt kept the game tied.
Matthew McCourt, Keibler, Iellimo, Singer, and Mahon all had three hits for the Mounties. Keibler led the team with 4 RBI. MAC (27-14) collected 20 hits in the game. Michael McCourt allowed just two hits in 2.2 innings of relief work to earn the win.
The Pioneers took the opener of the three game series 5-1 but Mt. Aloysius took game two 14-13 on Saturday. After Sunday's game three was postponed, the two teams had to wait until today to see who would advance to take on #1 LaRoche in the AMCC Final Four.
#1 seed La Roche and #2 seed Penn St. Behrend easily handled their opening round opponents in the AMCC Baseball championship Tournament.
Behrend took on their Penn State cousins from Altoona in the first game of a rain-threatened day, cruising to a 9-1 win. The Lions never trailed as senior hurler Phil Myers threw his fourth complete game of the season, allowing just one run on five hits. Myers fanned six batters, including two in the seventh and one in the eighth to seal the victory, improving to 7-0 on the season. RF Ian Taylor went 3-for-5 with three RBI in the leadoff spot, while SS Scott Sada and 1B Josth Wagner went 2-for-4 on the day.
After three scoreless innings, Wagner drove in Sada off first in the bottom of the fourth inning to get on the scoreboard. Mason McGuire made it 2-0 after getting on base on a fielder's choice and reaching home on a sacrifice fly by Jason Foreman. Altoona stayed within striking distance through five innings, as Behrend held a 2-1 lead past the game's midway point. But, coming out of a brief rain delay, Behrend put together a five-run bottom of the sixth inning and added another two runs in the seventh for the final 9-1 margin. C Justin Virga had two of PSA's five hits, going 2-for-3 with a run scored. SS Hunter Breon finished 1-for-4, providing the Lions' lone RBI.
Game two saw a rematch that earlier in the season resulted in a pair of Mount Aloysius wins. It looked to be more of the same as the Mounties opened with a strong first inning with SS Matt McCourt doing his job as lead-off batter with a hit and eventually touching home on a defensive error. But that was the sum of their impact on the scoreboard. The Redhawks answered with two runs in the second on a Brandon Nania HR. 3B Troy Kifer's single to center field in the 4th inning scored two more, and Nania picked up his third RBI of the game in the 8th, scoring RF Tristin Tinney, and it was the Redhawks who finished on top, 5-1. LRU's Travis Holman went all nine innings for his sixth win of the season, striking out seven and allowing just five hits.
Play resumes Friday at 10am with Mount Aloysius and Penn State Altoona facing off in an elimination game, followed by La Roche and Behrend at 1p. The winner of game one will meet the loser of game three at 4pm. The championship game is slated for Saturday at 11am.