ALTOONA, Pa. - Ryan Boyer tossed eight scoreless innings, Tim Brown drove in four runs, and the Pitt-Bradford baseball team blanked Penn State Atloona, 10-0, Monday to win its AMCC tournament opening-round series, 2-1.
With the win, the Panthers advance to the AMCC championship bracket for the first time since 2012. Pitt-Bradford will meet top-seeded La Roche Thursday at 4 p.m. in Pittsburgh.
It was the Panthers' second elimination-game win in the last six days; the Blue and Gold defeated Medaille, 5-0, Wednesday to earn the final spot in the conference tournament.
Boyer continued his late-season emergence as the team's ace, dropping his ERA to 2.88 with his second straight start of eight scoreless frames. He gave up seven hits, walked three and struck out seven.
Pitt-Bradford went ahead 4-0 in the fourth inning. Tim Brown remained hot at the plate, delivering a two-out two-run single, and a pair of Lion errors allowed two more runners to cross home.
Brown added another two-run base hit in the fifth, Brody Wood walked with bases loaded, and Austin Parent chipped in with a RBI sacrifice fly to stretch the lead to 8-0.
Jay Clinger doubled in a run in the sixth, and he scored on Parent's base hit through the left-side of the infield to cap the scoring. The Lions threatened in their half of the sixth, but Boyer induced a pair of pop-ups to strand two runners.
He induced a 4-6-3 double play in the seventh to erase a leadoff base hit, and the sophomore right-hander worked around a walk in the eighth to retire the side. Abe Frech pitched a scoreless ninth inning, recording a pair of strikeouts, to close out the series.
Tim Brown finished with three more hits and batted a team-leading .643 with seven RBIs in three games against Penn State Altoona. He had driven in just three runs in his previous 17 contests. Clinger totaled three hits and three runs, and Dalton Renn and Brock Blovsky each scored twice.
First-year head coach Zach Foster is pleased with his team's resiliency after a slow start to the season.
"Our guys came to play this weekend," Foster said. "They knew the stakes, but they maintained the same intensity and effort they have all year. The credit belongs to them."
"We have hit the ball all year, but we had some big outings by [Justin] Beimel and [Ryan] Boyer to carry us…I'm proud as heck of these guys."
With the series win, the Panthers atoned for being swept by the Lions last weekend. This year's team also used the same script as the 2012 unit, defeating Penn State Altoona on the road in the first round of the conference tournament.
Pitt-Bradford improves to 15-23 on the season, while Penn State Altoona finishes the year at 19-21.
