March 13, 2015
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| Liberty Baseball Stadium | Lynchburg, Va. | |
| POST GAME LINKS |
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| VIDEO: Postgame Comments (coming soon) |
| FINAL STATISTICS |
LYNCHBURG, Va. - A two-run fourth inning proved to be the difference, as Western Carolina defeated Penn State, 4-2, in the first game of the Liberty Baseball Invitational Friday in Liberty Baseball Stadium.
A leadoff double by Western Carolina (7-7) catcher Danny Bermudez and a walk cost Penn State (1-11) in the decisive inning, as both runners scored on RBIs from second baseman J.D. Long (single) and left fielder Austin Atwell (sacrifice fly), respectively.
The Catamounts were first on the scoreboard after a sacrifice fly from right fielder Kramer Ferrell in the first inning. The Nittany Lions tied the game in the bottom of the third inning when designated hitter Tyler Kendall (Boynton Beach, Fla.) hit a one-out double and left fielder James Coates (Girard, Ohio) plated him with a two-out single, but a double by right fielder Greg Guers (Langhorne, Pa.) to lead off the seventh was the only other hit the Lions could manage until the ninth inning.
Guers, who doubled twice, and Bermudez were the only players with multi-hit games, both going 2-for-4. Both teams added a run in the ninth inning for the final margin.
WCU starter LHP Bryan Sammons (2-2) yielded a run on just three hits and two walks, striking out five in six innings of work. RHP B.J. Nobles (1) struck out six in the final three innings, allowing only the ninth inning run on two hits, for the save.
RHP Nick Hedge (Winnetka, Ill.) (0-3) had another strong outing for the Lions, yielding the three runs on five hits and two walks in 6 1/3 innings, with six strikeouts for the second consecutive week. RHP Sal Biasi allowed one run on two hits with a walk and two strikeouts pitching the final 2 2/3.
Penn State will face Liberty at 1 p.m. Saturday and Sunday to conclude the tournament. LHP Taylor Lehman (0-2, 11.70 ERA) is slated to start Saturday and RHP Nick Distasio (0-2, 4.91 ERA) is expected to start Sunday.
NOTES: The game was originally scheduled to start at 1 p.m., but was moved earlier to 11:30 a.m. in an effort to avoid inclement weather for the second game of the day between Liberty and Western Carolina ... Penn State was the designated home team ... This was the first meeting between the two teams ... Aaron Novak's hitting streak ended at nine games.