Baseball Concludes Florida Trip with 5-1 Loss to Penn State-Behrend

Recap, photo courtesy of ENC

FORT PIERCE, Fla.- The Eastern Nazarene College baseball team endured a 5-1 setback to Penn State-Behrend Saturday in the final contest in the Sunshine State.

The Eastern Nazarene Lions fall to 5-4 on the season with the result while the Penn State-Behrend Lions improve to 3-5 overall.

Anthony Esposito (Mount Royal, N.J.) collected a pair of hits and scored one run on the day. Dylan Louviaux (Mohnton, Pa.) posted two base knocks. Steven Pesce (Harrison, N.Y.) recorded one RBI while Matthew Urena (Flushing, N.Y.) added a base hit.

Penn State-Behrend opened the scoring with a run in the top of the fourth, 1-0. Scott Saba crossed the dish on a two-out single to centerfield by John Brittner.

Penn State-Behrend tacked on a run in the fifth to double its advantage to 2-0. Sada laced a single down the left field line to plate Mason McGuire.

Eastern Nazarene got on the board in the bottom of the sixth inning to trim the deficit to 2-1. Esposito tagged up and scored as Pesce hoisted a sacrifice fly to right field to pick up his sixth RBI of the spring.

Penn State-Behrend reclaimed a two-run lead with one run in the seventh, 3-1. Joshua Wagner landed a pinch-hit single to drive in Brittner.

Penn State-Behrend added a pair of runs in the eighth to widen the gap to 5-1. Justin Foreman and Ryan Weaver both lifted sacrifice flyballs in the frame to knock in Sada and Tanner Cicchini.
Daniel Rivera (Poughkeepsie, N.Y.) tossed three innings and notched four strikeouts in his first start of the season. Morgan Weast (Cincinnati, Ohio) worked 3.1 innings in his first collegiate relief appearance and struck out five. Hunter Authier (Westfield, Mass.) pitched one inning of relief in his collegiate debut. Ben Petersen (Manchester, Conn.) hurled 1.2 scoreless frames in his second appearance out of the bullpen.

Up next, Eastern Nazarene is slated to visit Anna Maria for a non-conference doubleheader March 16.