Box Score Ewing, N.J. - Penn State Abington got a break from a series of tough NEAC games earlier this afternoon when they hit the road for a non-conference game at The College of New Jersey. The Nittany Lions won in a 2-1, pitching-heavy affair, scoring two runs in the top of the third and holding on late for the victory. Seven different pitchers combined to go nine innings and give up just four hits and one earned run while striking out six batters, capped off by Kevin Faber, who earned his fourth save of the season.
 
The Nittany Lions (17-15, 7-1 NEAC) got a great start out of right-hander Tom Ditro. Ditro, the squad's normal shortstop, got a chance to toe the rubber in the non-league game and certainly made the most of it. The sophomore went four strong innings without giving up a hit. The only blemishes on his card were a pair of walks issued in the second inning. Otherwise, the TCNJ batters were completely flummoxed by Ditro's mix of pitches and his ability to keep the ball out of the hittable part of the zone.
 
Penn State Abington broke through and gave their pitching staff a bit of run support in the top of the third inning. With two outs, Dustin Kology started a two-out rally by singling into left field, and then stealing second and third. After Mark McCouch followed by walking and stealing second base, Mike Kerns came to the plate. Kerns sent a ground ball to short, seemingly getting TCNJ out of the inning unscathed. However, the Lions shortstop threw the ball away, allowing Kology and McCouch to score and giving the Nittany Lions a 2-0 lead.
 
Other than that the few hits and two runs given up in the early innings, TCNJ (13-15, 5-5 NJAC) and its pitching combo of John Spinapoint and David Rondesko shut down the Nittany Lions offense for the rest of the game. Then, in the bottom of the sixth, the hosts finally broke through with some offense of their own. Now batting against George Klein, pitching in relief for the Blue and White, the Lions got a batter on with one out on a hit by pitch. All it took after that was a double down the left field line from Mike Murphy and it was a 2-1 game. However, Klein buckled down after that to strike out the next batter, and the Nittany Lions held on to their one run lead the rest of the way out. Faber came on to close things out in the bottom of the ninth and did just that. After allowing a leadoff walk, a sac bunt and two straight groundouts gave Abington their seventeenth win of the season.
 
The Nittany Lions will continue their set of non-conference games when they hit the road to take on Widener tomorrow afternoon. Then, a pair of crucial NEAC conferences face the Blue and White this weekend when they play doubleheaders at Gallaudet and at home to Penn State Harrusburg, the first and third teams in the NEAC conference standings with Abington sandwiched in between. Game time for tomorrow's game against the Pride is set for 3:30 pm.