Box Score Eagle Lake, Fla. – Once again, a second-inning burst from the opposing offense ultimately cost the Penn State Abington baseball team a chance at victory in the final game of their spring break trip to Florida earlier this morning. Dustin Kology and Bill Parave each had two hits for the Nittany Lions in their 3-2 loss to New Jersey City University.
 
Mark McCouch started the game on the hill for Penn State Abington, and did a great job to get out of a jam in the first inning. After a walk and a bunt single, Andrew Rivera tried a bunt of his own to move the runners up. He managed to get the bunt down, but McCouch made a great defensive play, fielding the ball and firing a laser to third to cut down the lead runner. In the very next at bat, McCouch got Andrew Niech to ground into a 4-6-3 double play to end the inning.
 
However, the Nittany Lions could not get out of the second inning in the same manner. The Knights (4-4, 0-0 NJAC) started the inning off with a single, but McCouch made a great move and picked the runner off during the next at bat. This was fortunate, because the next Knight up lined a double down the right field line. Once again, McCouch got an important out, getting a ground ball to shortstop that moved Alex Weinstein to third, but also gave the Nittany Lions two outs. Then, New Jersey City came through with three big two-out hits to score runs. First, a single through the left side scored Weinstein from third. Then, Bill Parave made an excellent attempt at a shoestring catch in the next at bat, but could not come up with it, putting runners at first and third. Finally, Mike Patterson came up with what ultimately became the winning RBIs, sending another double down the left field line to bring in the two runners. When the inning finally ended with a lineout back to the pitcher, the Knights had put together a 3-0 lead.
 
The Nittany Lions (4-9, 0-0 NEAC) were able to chip away at this deficit twice throughout the rest of the game. In the bottom of the third, Abington loaded the bases, helped by two Knights errors, with just one out in the inning. McCouch came up to bat and helped his own cause, knocking a single to third base that moved everyone up and made the score 3-1. However, Knights pitcher Wendell Rodriguez got out of the jam by getting Parave to ground into a 6-4-3 double play to end the inning. Then in the bottom of the fifth, the Nittany Lions used another throwing error and a balk to get Pat Moran to third base with two outs, and Dustin Kology knocked him in with a single up the middle.
 
Unfortunately, this was as close as the Nittany Lions would get for the rest of the game. Rodriguez spun a complete game gem for the Knights, going all nine innings and giving up just seven hits with six strikeouts and no earned runs. McCouch pitched a strong game himself, going six innings and giving up just three runs and nine hits while striking out two batters. Once again, the Abington bullpen was fantastic, with Kevin Faber, Bill Parave, and Robert Morak combining to throw three innings of shutout ball and only giving up two hits.
 
The Nittany Lions return home from their trip having earned a 4-5 record against some quality teams and look continue to improve when they take the field again. Their next two games come on the road next week, where the Nittany Lions will face off against Rowan on March 13^th and Rutgers-Camden on March 15^th. Be sure to keep checking in at abingtonsports.com for all your updates on Nittany Lions athletics.