BUFFALO, Ny: The Pitt-Greensburg baseball team broke out the brooms and the offense in a doubleheader sweep of D'Youville College on Saturday. After a 4-0 shutout victory in the opener, the Bobcats backed it up with a 17-3 nightcap win that included 21 UPG hits.
Pitt-Greensburg improves to 18-14 on the season and 10-2 in the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference, taking sole possession of second place. The Spartans drop to 2-24 overall and 2-10 in conference action.
Game One:
Pitt-Greensburg produced the opener's first two runs in the top of the second inning, starting with a Matt Moyer (Greensburg, PA, Hempfield) sacrifice fly that scored Anthony Bozzuto (Greensburg, PA, Hempfield). They'd follow with a Matt Germanoski (Ellwood City, PA, Ellwood City) run, compliments of an error on the Spartan's catcher.
The teams went scoreless over the next three innings until UPG broke the drought in the top of the sixth with Germanoski forcing another D'Youville error to score Jake Bulick for a 3-0 Bobcat advantage.
Zack Zimmerman (Derry, PA, Derry) capped the opener's scoring in the top of the seventh, sending a RBI-single to left field to bring in the Bobcats fourth and final run.
Joe Zufall (Bethel Park, PA, Bethel Park)held the Spartans scoreless in the victory. He'd provide the pitching for all seven innings, allowing just six hits while striking out eight batters en route to picking his second win of the season.
The Bobcats would tally four hits in game one, with Germanoski setting the tone with a 2-3 performance including a RBI and run scored.
Game Two:
The Pitt-Greensburg offense opened up significantly in game two, with the Bobcats belting out 21 hits in the lopsided win.
The Bobcats crossed home plate in seven of the nine nightcap innings with their largest output coming in the top of the third. They'd plate five runs in the half inning stretching a 3-0 advantage to an imposing eight runs.
They'd also enjoy a four run fifth, and a three run sixth to silence any notion of a Spartan comeback rally.
Game two's top performers included Chris Common (Trafford, PA, Penn-Trafford), who finished 5-5 with a RBI and a team-high three runs scored. Dylan Pounds (Houston, PA, Chartiers-Houston) led the RBI charge with three after a 3-5 outing. Ryan Dodson (Bethel Park, PA, Bethel Park), Bozzuto, and Germanoski also turned in 3-5 performances with Bozzuto adding three doubles and tying Common with three runs scored.
Billy Elliott (Ligonier, PA, Ligonier Valley)earns the win after the three inning start. In his first start of the year, Elliott held D'Youville hitless over the first three innings and struck out two before handing the ball off to Bill Minnick (West Mifflin, PA, West Mifflin) to pitch the next four. Minnick was also solid, giving up no runs on two hits while collecting three K's. Adam Dodson (Bethel Park, PA, Bethel Park) stepped in for the eighth and was charged with the three Spartan runs, only one earned before making way for Tyler Potutschnig (Flinton, PA, Glendale) to give the Bobcats a scoreless ninth.
With two games on Saturday, Matt Germanoski (Ellwood City, PA, Ellwood City) captures the career record for game's played. The senior third baseman has handled the hot corner for 153 game's, moving ahead of former Bobcat standout, Todd Deloplaine who reached the former record of 152 from 2004 to 2007.
Pitt-Greensburg is back to action today, with another conference doubleheader in Buffalo, NY. They'll face Medaille College at 1:00pm
