FAYETTEVILLE, NC – The Penn State Abington baseball team opened competition at the Armstrong Invitational with an 8-6 setback to host Methodist College.

It was the first loss of the young season for the Nittany Lions (2-1), who will play two more games over the weekend against Hampden Sydney College (Saturday) and DeSales University (Sunday).

Penn State Abington opened the scoring in the third inning as a passed ball allowed Montana Milward to cross home plate. The team then added two more in the fourth as Jaden Himmelreich continued his torrid start with a two-run double. Himmelreich, who was named to the D3baseball.com Team of the Week earlier in the week, upped his RBI total to 11 in three games.

Himmelreich then scored off a Milward double in the sixth inning and the Nittany Lions had a 4-0 lead. However, the Monarchs (4-2) tied the contest in the bottom of the sixth with four runs off of four hits and one Penn State Abington error. Methodist plated four more in the seventh, including a two-run homer by Rob Wilkerson, for an 8-4 advantage.

The Nittany Lions cut their deficit in half in the eighth as Milward doubled in a run and later scored on a Matt Crisci triple. They brought the tying run to the plate in the top of the ninth, but Monarch reliever Tanner Freeland got the last out for the save.

Milward went 3-for-3 and tied a school single-game record with three doubles. He scored two runs and knocked in two. Himmelreich was 2-for-3 with the two RBIs at the plate. He also pitched six innings and fanned five, but took the loss. 

Wilkerson went 2-for-4, including the home run for Methodist.