PITTSBURGH, Pa. – Top seeded La Roche scored in each of the final four innings to pull away and defeat the fifth-seeded Pitt-Bradford baseball team, 15-6, Friday in the championship round of the AMCC tournament.
With the loss, the Panthers will face Mt. Aloysius Saturday at 9 a.m. in an elimination game. The Mounties were edged, 5-3, by Penn State Behrend earlier in the day.
Pitt-Bradford led 4-3 entering the fifth, but a pair of defensive plays by the Redhawks seemed to turn the momentum. Panther starter Justin Beimel allowed two of the first three La Roche batters to reach base in the bottom half of the frame, and David Lemley put the Redhawks in front for good with a towering three-run home run to leftfield.
La Roche added three more runs in the sixth and two more in the seventh to stretch its advantage to 11-4. Austin Parent smacked a two-run home run in the eighth, his third of the season, to pull the Panthers within five. The Redhawks tacked on four more runs in their half of the frame to cap the scoring.
Pitt-Bradford jumped out to a 3-0 lead after the top half of the first. Tyler Hoops led off the game with a triple and scored on Brock Blovsky's sacrifice fly. Dalton Renn walked in the next at bat and came around to score on Jay Clinger's double to the gap in right field. Clinger advanced to third on the throw home, and he crossed the plate on Austin Parent's sacrifice fly to centerfield.
La Roche responded with three runs of its own to tie the game, but the Panthers went back ahead in the second on Tim Brown's homer to deep leftfield. It was his fourth of the season, tying Renn for the team lead. Beimel and Redhawks starter Tanner Stanz would settle in, though, as neither team scored again until the fifth inning.
Beimel was charged with the loss, allowing eight runs, six earned, on nine hits in five innings. He walked five and struck out one. Relievers Matthew Hogue and Nate Renick combined to give up seven runs in relief, and Andrew Bacha got the final out of the eighth inning.
La Roche totaled 17 hits and limited the Panthers to just seven. Parent went 2-2 with three RBIs and a run scored for the Blue and Gold.
Pitt-Bradford falls to 15-24 on the season. The Panthers split the regular season matchup with the Mounties.
