Box Score Abington, Pa. - With temperatures still struggling to climb into warmer digits this afternoon, the Nittany Lions baseball squad also was unable to keep pace with Immaculata University on the diamond. The Mighty Macs took an early lead against Abington before blowing the game up in the middle innings to take home a 9-4 victory.
 
The Mighty Macs (9-9) got the game started exactly the way a visiting team would hope to in the top of the first. After a single, a walk, and a hit by pitch, the bases were loaded with nobody out. The next batter lifted a sac fly to center, scoring one run. Then, after another hit batsman re-loaded the bases, another sacrifice fly brought home the second run, with the third scoring on a throwing error when Abington tried to throw out a runner trying to advance to second on the play.
 
The Nittany Lions (9-14) managed to knot the game back up over the next several innings. In the bottom of the first, senior Dan Hill, who also got the start on the mound for the Blue and White, helped his own cause by doubling just short of the outfield wall, plating two runs. Then, in the bottom of the third inning, a double steal by the Nittany Lions brought home another run, when the catcher's throw to third went wildly into left field.
 
Unfortunately for Abington, this was the closest they would get to the lead for the rest of the game. In the fifth inning, an RBI double from the Mighty Macs sent another run home and made the score 4-3. Then, Immaculata blew the game wide open with a five-run sixth inning. A two-RBI single down the right field line led to a pitching change for the Nittany Lions. Robert Morak took over on the mound for the Blue and White, now down 6-3, but the first batter he faced smashed a three-run home run over the left center field wall, upping the Mighty Macs lead to 9-3.
 
Abington managed to chip away at their deficit in the bottom of the seventh, when Bill Parave lined a sacrifice fly into center to bring home A.J. Vagliani. However, the Nittany Lions went three up, three down over their final two innings to close out the loss and drop to 9-14 on the season. Daniel Hill got the start and took home the loss for the Nittany Lions, pitching five and two thirds innings and giving up seven earned runs. He also had two hits on the day at the plate and, along with Bill Parave, tallied the only RBIs for Abington. The Nittany Lions will be right back in action on Friday, when they hit the road to open up NEAC conference play with a doubleheader at Lancaster Bible College. Game one is set to begin at 1:00 pm, and you can get all your updates on Nittany Lions baseball here at abingtonsports.com.