PITTSBURGH, PA: The Pitt-Greensburg baseball team bounced back from a Friday loss to hand the Mount Aloysius Mounties a 14-4 defeat in Saturday's first elimination matchup. The Bobcats (24-18-1) now advance to Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference semifinals at 3:00pm for a chance to return to the Championship round while the Mounties season comes to a close with a 22-20 record.
The Bobcat would get on the board first, starting with a pair runs in the top of the second inning. Freshman leftfielder,
Mike Maleski (Pittsburgh, PA, Plum) followed a
Matt Germanoski (Ellwood City, PA, Ellwood City) single with a RBI-triple to bring in the game's first run. He'd then come around to score run two one batters later on a
Tyler Lilja (Greensburg, PA, Hempfield) single through the left side.
The Mounties would respond with a run of their own in the bottom of the second, cutting the UPG advantage in half. They'd add another an inning later to knot things up at 2-2.
The Bobcats would break things open in the fourth, beginning with a
Dylan Pounds (Houston, PA, Chartiers-Houston) one run single that put UPG back in the lead. With an
Anthony Maroadi (North Huntingdon, PA, Norwin) walk loading the bases, a
Greg Lynn (Ellwood City, PA, Ellwood City) hit ball forced an error on the Aloysius second baseman, adding another Bobcat run and leaving the bases loaded for
Matt Moyer (Greensburg, PA, Hempfield). Moyer delivered in a big way, sending a grandslam homerun over the outfield fence to extend the advantage to 8-2.
The top of the fifth would see Pitt-Greensburg add three more runs to stretch things to 11-2. A Maroadi sacrifice fly would bring in run nine followed by a Moyer two-run single that scored two more.
Mount Aloysius capped their offense in the bottom of the fifth inning, adding their final two runs.
The Bobcats would get one back in the top of the seventh on a Lynn sacrifice fly that brought in Lilja for a 12-4 lead.
A Lija two-run double in the eighth would bring us to our final at 14-4 in favor of Pitt-Greensburg.
The offensive barrage was led by Moyer, who finished the game 2-5 with a homerun and a staggering six RBI. Lilja and Germanoski would each collect three hits in the win with Lilja adding two doubles, two runs scored, and three RBI. Germanoski scored a team-high four runs.
Cory Deighan (Bethel Park, PA, Seton-La Salle) was strong in the start, giving the Bobcats 8.1 innings of work to earn the win. He'd allow four runs on 10 hits while striking out four Mounties.
Adam Dodson (Bethel Park, PA, Bethel Park) entered to collect the final two outs, shutting the door on Mount Aloysius and tying a school season record for appearances in the process with his 17th.
Pitt-Greensburg is right back to action at 3:00pm today, facing the loser of the noon game between La Roche and Penn State Behrend.
