Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 Winter Haven, Fla. – The Penn State Abington baseball squad earned their first victory of 2014 earlier this afternoon by splitting a doubleheader with fellow PSU-system foe Penn State Altoona. The Nittany Lions came from behind in game one of the pair for a thrilling 6-4 victory before taking a tough 16-7 loss in the second game of the day, which was day two of the Penn State Abington spring break trip to the RussMatt Baseball Central Florida Invitational. Freshman Mike Scaringelli had a big day at the plate for the Blue and White, going 3-for-7 total with 3 RBIs. Kevin Faber got the victory in game one, while several other Abington pitchers had strong individual outings including transfer Jeff Davis and freshmen Christian Thompson and Tim Hart.
 
Penn State Abington (1-2, 0-0 NEAC) got off to a quick start in the first game of the day by jumping out to a 1-0 lead in the first inning. Freshman Jason Roselli led the game off with a double to center field. Then, with Fran Caruso at the plate, Roselli moved to third, and then scored, on back-to-back passed balls, giving the Nittany Lions a 1-0 lead after just one batter in the game. However, Penn State Altoona (1-3, 0-0 AMCC) did manage to get out of the rest of the inning unscathed, and then proceeded to shut down the Abington offense the next two innings as well. Meanwhile, junior lefty Jeff Davis, in his first start as a Nittany Lion, was dealing through the eight outs for Penn State Abington, with five of those eight being strikeouts. However, the last out of the third inning proved difficult to nail down, the Altoona finally got to Davis when Pat McHenry laced a three-run double into right field, putting the host team in front 3-1. Penn State Abington came back for a run of their own in the top of the fourth on an RBI double by senior A.J. Vagliani. However, Altoona matched that single run in the bottom of the fifth, and when Abington came to the plate for their last at-bats in the top of the seventh, they still trailed 4-2.
 
Ted Smallwood got the inning started off by reaching on an error, and then moved up to second when Callan Palmer drew a walk. After a pitching change, Roselli came to the plate and dropped down a precise sacrifice bunt, moving the runners to second and third with just one out. Caruso followed that up with the big hit of the game, a single driven into right field to score both runners and tie the game up at 4-4. Junior Tom Ditro came to the plate next, and he blasted a double into center field, scoring Michael Dunlap, who had come in to pinch run for Caruso, and suddenly the Nittany Lions held a 5-4 lead. Diego Melendez added an insurance run to that lead later on in the inning with a sacrifice fly, all that was needed was a clean bottom of the seventh to give Penn State Abington their first win of the year. Kevin Faber, who had already come in to pitch a solid sixth inning, stayed in and finished out the game, striking out the last batter swinging to earn both his and Abington's first win of 2014.
   
The second game of the day turned out to be much less "tightly-contested" than the first, as Penn State Altoona opened up a 9-0 lead on Abington before cruising away to a 16-7 victory. Penn State Abington did make a solid effort to come back in the middle innings, though, as the Nittany Lions scored seven unanswered runs to get back in the game. In the fourth, Diego Melendez notched an RBI with a single to drive in Caruso, and then Brandon Mau nailed a single to left that brought in two more runs. Then, in the fifth, Mike Scaringelli blasted a bases-clearing triple into right that scored Caruso, Ditro, and Roselli to make it 9-6. Gary Martorana plated Abington's final run with an RBI groundout to shortstop to make it a two-run game. Meanwhile, two freshman pitchers in Tim Hart and Christian Thompson teamed up to throw two consecutive scoreless innings to keep the game close, allowing just one hit between them. Still, in the final inning, Altoona put together another rally that scored them seven more runs, including three two-RBI singles. By the time all was said and done, Abington couldn't keep up with Altoona's overpowering attack and the Nittany Lions fell by a score of 7-16.
 
Penn State Abington now looks forward to tomorrow's contest against Waynesburg University. The Yellow Jackets will come into the contest after playing a doubleheader themselves today against University of Mount Union. The Nittany Lions will look to even up their record at .500 when they hit the field for the 12:30 p.m. first pitch. Be sure to keep checking in at abingtonsports.com for all your updates as the baseball squad continues their Spring Break competition in Florida.