Box Score Winter Haven, Fla. – The Penn State Abington baseball squad closed out their spring break trip to Florida earlier this afternoon with a 2-7 loss to the Kangaroos of SUNY Canton. In the final game of the RussMatt Baseball Central Florida Invitational, the Nittany Lions could only manage two runs and four hits against Canton starter Derek Harkin, who earned his first victory of the season on the mound. Meanwhile, Brian Camp and Jeff Davis combined to throw eight solid innings, scattering 12 hits and striking out three while only allowing one earned run. However, the Blue and White made four errors on the afternoon, leading to six unearned runs over the course of the game.
 
The Nittany Lions (2-6, 0-0 NEAC) did manage to scratch across a run early on in the contest to jump out to a quick lead. Freshman Diego Melendez was nailed by a pitch from Harkin, putting him on first base to lead off the second inning. A well-executed sacrifice bunt from Ted Smallwood moved Melendez up to second, and he promptly moved up to third when Trey Guaglionona reached on a throwing error by the SUNY Canton third baseman. Sophomore Callan Palmer came to the plate next, and he got the run in by lifting a sacrifice fly deep into right field, giving Penn State Abington a 1-0 lead after two innings. However, SUNY Canton (4-2) came roaring back in the bottom of the third. The first two batters led off with back-to-back singles, putting runners on the corners with nobody out. An error on the pitcher moved each runner up a base and tied the game at 1-1. Then, the 'Roos took the lead on a single and another error by the pitcher before piling on for three more runs in the frame and making it a 5-1 ballgame. The Nittany Lions got a run back in the top of the seventh when junior Fran Caruso hit a sacrifice fly of his own to bring home Guaglionona and make it a 5-2 scoreline. However, SUNY Canton tacked on two more insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth on a two-RBI single by freshman Kevin Icaza, putting the game well out of reach of the Blue and White in their final at-bats.
 
Penn State Abington completes their spring break trip having gone 2-6 versus some tough competition, including the number eight team in the country in SUNY Cortland. The squad will try and bring warmer temperatures back home when they return to the diamond on Tuesday for a game at Ursinus College. Then, the Nittany Lions will open their first homestand of 2014 with a set of five games in five days. It all starts off with a single game against the College of New Jersey before SUNY Canton returns for three games on Friday and Saturday. The Thursday contest against TCNJ is slated to start at 3:30 pm, and all games will take place at Alverthorpe Park in Jenkintown, Pa. just minutes from the Abington campus. Be sure to come out and support baseball and all the other Penn State Abington spring sports as the teams get their home openers going throughout the rest of March.