LAKELAND, FL - Down 7-4 in the bottom of the eighth inning the Penn State Abington baseball team rallied past Neumann University on to a close 11-10 win at the RussMatt Baseball invitational on Saturday afternoon. The Nittany Lions improve to 3-3 for the season.

Junior pitcher Nick Hopely (Croydon, PA) picked up his second win in as many days after a solid outing on the mound. At the plate Darren Aupperle (Barrington, NJ) led the way for the Nittany Lions going 3-of-4 with two runs and an RBI. 

The Nittany Lions struggled at the plate, without getting a hit until the sixth inning when Aupperle ended the drought with a lead off double.  Later in the inning a single to center field from Brett Guaglionona (Abington, Pa.) drove him in to get the Nittany Lions on the board down 7-1. Abington continued to chip away at the lead with back-to-back RBI doubles from Ryan McCarty (Yardley, PA)y and Tyler DiPatri (Pedricktown, NJ) to cut the deficit to 7-3. 

Abington added another run to the board in the seventh inning with a sacrifice fly from Jaden Himmelreich (Temple, PA) to make it 7-4. 

In the bottom of the eighth inning still down 7-4, the Nittany Lions bats woke up with a seven run inning.  With two on Dipatri earned another RBI with a sharp ball to second, and Joe Rizzo followed it up with an RBI single to left field. Freshman Zach Morales (Barrington, NJ) tied the game with his RBI single out to right field. Aupperle put the go ahead run across the plate with his single followed by consecutive hits from Himmelreich and Guaglionona to push the lead to 10-7. Abington capped the inning with a sacrifice fly from Bill Trimble (Yardley, PA) to give them their 11th run of the day. 

The Knights responded with three runs of their own, but Himmelriech was able to get out of the inning with two on and one out to earn the save.

Abington will be back in action tomorrow when they face off against Louisana College at 10:45 a.m.