JENKINTOWN, PA. – Down early to No. 11 Rowan University, the Penn State Abington baseball team battled to a 9-8 upset of the Profs on Tuesday afternoon. The Nittany Lions improve to 4-1 on the season before they break into conference play this weekend.
 
Alverthorpe Park has been an achilles heel for the Profs losing to the Nittany Lions 10-7 in 2018 while ranked No. 6 in the country, and losing in 2014, 4-3 when they were no. 10 in the country.
 
On the mound Jaden Himmel Reich picked up the win, but it was a team effort with four pitchers taking the mound.
 
At the plate Stevie Stevenson led the Nittany Lions going 4-of-5 with a run, RBI and picked up the game tying single to second base. In his two at bats, Justin Fogel came through in the clutch.  The freshman knocked in a critical home run in the eighth inning.
 
Abington came out slow, letting the profs score on errors and giving the visitors a 3-0 lead after the first inning. Later in the fourth Rowan's Ryan Murphy took a solo shot over the left field wall to add on.
 
The Nittany Lions woke up in the fifth, with bases loaded Zach Morales sliced his pitch through the infield to drive in two runs.  After a pitching change Rowan hit Paul Woodley to walk in a run, and then walked Darrien Mogel to tie the game at 4-4.  Fogel stepped in with bases loaded and two outs, and hit his pitch out to center to give the Nittany Lions a 6-4 lead after five innings.
 
Rowan rallied in the sixth inning and tied the game back up with two runs after a double. With a man on second and two outs Rowan's batter drove a deep ball to left field and looked like they would take the lead, but a rocket from Brendon Reese found the catcher and got the out at home.
 
Still tied 6-6 in the eighth inning, Fogel broke the deadlock with his solo shot out to center field that just made it past the centerfielders glove for his first career home run.
 
The Profs responded in the top of the ninth and built momentum scoring two runs off back-to-back singles to take the 8-7 lead.
 
In the bottom of the ninth with two outs the Nittany Lions had bases loaded for Stevenson. Stevie hit an awkward ball for the second baseman, and Fogel slid into second base safe tying the game at 8-8.  Doherty fell behind the count early but ended up being hit by a pitch for the game winning run to score for the Nittany Lions.
 
Coming off the huge win, the Nittany Lions look to keep momentum going when they host rivals Penn State Berks this Saturday afternoon for a doubleheader at 12:00 PM.