JENKINTOWN, Pa. – The Penn State Abington baseball team hosted non-conference opponent John Jay and held on to an 8-6 win over the Bloodhounds on Wednesday afternoon. The Nittany Lions improve to 12-7 for the season.
 
Freshman Ryan McCarty (Yardley, PA) dominated at the plate coming up just short for the cycle with a home run, double and single.  In four innings of work John Matthews (Levittown, PA) picked up his first win of the season with three strikeouts.
 
In the second inning, the Bloodhounds struck first and took a 1-0 lead.  Freshman Jaden Himmelreich (Temple, PA) tied the game with his RBI single.
 
Later in the fourth inning McCarty hit his third home run of the year to give the Nittany Lions the 2-1 lead. Senior Austin Mikula (Philadelphia, Pa.) added an RBI single for the Nittany Lions in the fourth inning.
 
John Jay tied up the game 3-3 in the top of the fifth, but Abington responded in the bottom half of the inning with consecutive doubles from Paul Woodley (Levittown, PA) and Julio Aira IV (Miami Fla.) to give Abington the lead.  McCarty pushed the Nittany Lions advantage with his RBI double in the bottom of the sixth, and Joseph Rizzo (Gibbstown, NJ) added to their total with an RBI single in the seventh.
 
The Bloodhounds gave the Nittany Lions a scare in the ninth inning with a three-run home run, but Abington held on for the win.
 
Next the Nittany Lions will host Cazenovia Collage this Saturday for a doubleheader starting at 1:00 p.m.