Box Score Winter Haven, Fla. – The Penn State Abington baseball squad earned a thrilling come-from-behind win earlier this evening over the College of Mount St. Joseph. After waiting out a four-hour rain delay and falling behind 5-2 early, the Nittany Lions stormed back with four runs over their final two innings to take home a 7-6 victory. Tom Ditro was the walk-off hero, plating the game-winning run with a bottom-of-the-ninth, two-out single to right and earning him a congratulatory mob from a swarm of teammates. Senior pitcher Kevin Faber earned the win on the mound for the Blue and White, pitching the final three innings and allowing just one unearned run and two hits while striking out three Lions batters.
 
Mount St. Joseph (2-3-1, 0-0 Heartland) jumped out in front early in the game that was pushed back from its original 3:00 pm scheduled start due to heavy rains in the area. Single runs in the first three innings put the Mount ahead 3-2 after three, and the Lions managed to push another pair of runs across in the fifth on a two-RBI single by Jack Meininger to extend their lead. Meanwhile, Penn State Abington, who earned their runs on a two-run double from Mike Scaringelli in the first inning, stayed within reach of their opponents thanks to a solid relief effort from Faber. Making his fifth appearance of the young season, the lanky senior pitched a solid three innings, mostly shutting down the previously potent Lions offense and giving Penn State Abington a chance to respond. In the bottom of the fifth inning, the Nittany Lions started their comeback effort with a single run when Ted Smallwood crossed the plate thanks to a wild pitch, making it a 5-3 ballgame. However, Mount St. Josephs scratched across an unearned insurance run in the top of the eighth when Nick Browning hit a sacrifice fly to center to score Taylor Alley, and suddenly the Nittany Lions once again faced a three-run deficit.
 
The Nittany Lions squad showed their mettle in the bottom of the inning though, refusing to press to get all the runs back at once and instead putting together an extended rally to make a tremendous comeback. Michael Dunlap got things started by leading off the inning with a solid single. After a groundout and another single from Tom Ditro, the Nittany Lions had runners at the corners, and Mount St. Joseph brought in a new pitcher in an effort to shut down the comeback charge. However, in the midst of the next at-bat, the Blue and White got an easy run thanks to a wild pitch, scoring Dunlap and making it a 6-4 game. Mike Scaringelli drew a walk to put runners on first and second, and after a strikeout, freshman Diego Melendez came to the plate with two outs in the frame. Melendez found exactly the pitch he was looking for, driving a single into center field, and with two outs and the runners going, both Ditro and Scaringelli scored and suddenly the game was tied up at 6-all. After the Lions got out of the inning with no further damage, Faber worked around an error to hold the Mount scoreless in the top of the ninth, thanks in part to catching a Lions player trying to steal home. The game went into the last half of the ninth still knotted up at 6-6, and it didn't start off promising for Penn State Abington either. A strikeout and a flyout made it two outs with the bases empty, and Dunlap came back up to the plate looking to start a two-out rally. He drew a walk, and then junior Fran Caruso knocked a single into right to move Dunlap up to second. Then it was up to Ditro. The junior catcher, who came into the at-bat three-for-three to that point in the night, worked into a 1-2 count, and then laced a line drive single into right that brought Dunlap home as the winning run and emptied the Nittany Lion dugout in a mad dash to chase down Ditro in congratulations.
 
With the win, Penn State Abington moves to 2-5 on the season, and the team will look to continue their winning ways tomorrow when they take on SUNY Oneonta in the final game of their spring break trip to the RussMatt Central Florida Baseball Invitational. The doubleheader will get underway at 1:30 pm tomorrow afternoon, and as always, be sure to keep checking in at abingtonsports.com for all your updates on the baseball squad and all other Penn State Abington athletics!