Box Score Jenkintown, Pa. – The Nittany Lions baseball squad got a key victory earlier Friday afternoon thanks to a complete game effort from starting pitcher Diego Melendez. The freshman scattered six hits and struck out seven batters while allowing just one run en route to a 9-1 victory over the Wildcats of SUNYIT. At a time in the season when every victory or defeat has playoff consequences, the Penn State Abington offense exploded for nine runs against a squad that had held them to just five in a doubleheader earlier in the season. Callan Palmer in particular had a solid day, going two-for-three with a run scored and four RBIs, including what ultimately turned out to be the game-winning hit.
 
Melendez sat down the first six batters he faced, allowing the Penn State Abington (12-17-1, 5-7 NEAC) offense to go to work. Fran Caruso opened the second inning with a leadoff walk, but a strike-em out/throw-em out double play erased the runner and put two outs on the board. However, Michael Dunlap got a rally started by taking an inside pitch to the side and taking first base. Jason Roselli came to the plate next, and he laced a single through the left side of the infield to put runners on first and second. They both moved up during the next at bat thanks to a wild pitch. Then, Palmer knocked in his first two runs of the day with a sharp single into center field, giving Penn State Abington a 2-0 lead early. SUNYIT (13-13, 8-5 NEAC) got one of those runs back in the top of the third thanks to an RBI double by Ryan Wegner. However, the Nittany Lions got that run right back in the bottom of the frame via a sacrifice fly by Tom Ditro to score Ted Smallwood. The Blue and White then extended their lead even more on a double by Palmer, once again plating two runners and giving the hosts a 5-1 lead.
 
Penn State Abington added a pair of insurance runs in both the seventh and the eighth innings to extend their lead to eight runs, but by this time, the game was all about the dominant performance of Melendez. The stocky freshman perplexed the SUNYIT offense for a good majority of the game, and really only got into trouble in the top of the eighth inning. After inducing a weak pop fly to open the inning, Melendez gave up back-to-back-to-back singles to load the bases in front of the heart of the Wildcats order. However, he then got Ryan Dungey to pop out to third in foul territory and turned a weak comeback groundball into a rare 1-2 force out to close out the inning without any damage allowed. In the top of the ninth, the leadoff batter reached via an error, but Melendez then got another popout and struck out the next two batters to finish the game and complete the 9-1 victory.
 
With the win, the Nittany Lions add a crucial conference game to the win column, moving their North Eastern Athletic Conference record to 5-7. The Nittany Lions now sit just three games back of a tie for fourth place in the NEAC standings, and they'll have the perfect opportunity to continue to make up that ground this weekend. Penn State Abington will host Cazenovia for a three-game set starting with a Saturday doubleheader. With the four teams in front of them taking on each other and Cazenovia only bringing one NEAC victory into this weekend's contests, it marks a terrific chance for the Blue and White to get right back in the hunt for a postseason berth at season's end. Things get underway on Saturday with game one of the series tipping off at 1:00 pm.