PITTSBURGH, Pa. - The La Roche University baseball team swept Alfred State at home in the conference semifinal Friday afternoon to advance to their ninth straight AMCC championship. The Redhawks dominated the Pioneers 14-1 in game one but had to fight back in game two. After trailing 5-2 in the top of the sixth, LRU scored six runs in the final three innings, capped off by a Dylan Urban walk-off sacrifice fly in the bottom of the ninth to take game two, 8-7.
#1 seed La Roche will host #2 seed Penn St. Behrend for the best-of-three AMCC Tournament Championship series on Wednesday, May 19th and Thursday, May 20th if necessary. The last time the Redhawks and the Lions faced off in the conference championship was in 2017. LRU swept PSB in two games 14-5 and 6-4. The Redhawks defeated Behrend in the championship three years in a row (2017, 2016, 2015). The last time La Roche lost the AMCC Championship was to the Lions in 2013.
Game One - La Roche 14, Alfred St. 1
The Redhawks scored 12 of their 14 runs in the second, third and sixth innings.
Jake Seymour notched his sixth complete game and improved to 7-0 on the season. In 7.0 innings pitched, Seymour had a career-high 11 strikeouts, two walks and gave up just two hits and one earned run.
Ryan Lynn went 3-for-5 with a career-high six RBI and two runs scored. Lynn notched his third homer of the year in the bottom of the third with a three run blast over the high left field fence.
Austin Hoffman went 2-for-4 with two doubles, two RBI and a team-high three runs scored.
Jay Novak went 2-for-3 with a double, three RBI and scored a run.
Ben Dottle went 2-for-3 with a double, an RBI and scored a run.
Game Two - La Roche 8, Alfred St. 7
How it Happened
After a tough game one loss, the Pioneers came ready to play in game two. LRU went up 1-0 in the bottom of the first off two doubles from Austin Hoffman and Jason Swope. Then Alfred state scored three runs over the next two innings to take a 3-1 lead. Nathan Stutz made it a one run game on an RBI single in the bottom of the fourth.
After a scoreless fifth inning, ASC would score two more runs in the sixth and seventh off singles to go up 5-2, their largest lead of the day.
La Roche got back on track in the bottom of the seventh. With the bases loaded, Jason Swope lined one into right field to score Stutz. The next batter, Jay Novak, then reached on an error by the third basemen and two more runs scored to tie the game, 5-5.
The Redhawks would then go up 7-5 in the bottom of the eighth when Austin Hoffman singled into center field to score Dottle and Mason Brooks. The Pioneers refused to go away and scored two more runs in the top of ninth to even the score 7-7.
Then in the bottom of the ninth with no outs and runners on third and second, Dylan Urban bombed a walk-off sacrifice fly into right field to lift La Roche to an 8-7 victory.
Inside the Box Score
Jason Swope went 2-for-5 with a double and two RBI.
Austin Hoffman went 2-for-4 with a double, two RBI and two runs scored.
Nathan Stutz went 2-for-2, drew two walks, scored a run and got an RBI.
Mason Brooks went 2-for-4 and scored two runs.
On the mound, Mike Nuzzo came in for relief in the seventh and was credited with the win. Nuzzo is now 3-0 on the season.