DUBOIS — The Penn State DuBois baseball team broke out the long ball on a chilly afternoon and evening Thursday at Showers Field as it swept a doubleheader from rival Penn State Mont Alto by scores of 7-3 and 9-4.
DuBois belted five home runs — three by senior center fielder Brett Beith — between the two games to capture two huge PSUAC West Division victories against a Mont Alto squad that came in 4-0 in the conference and 14-8 overall.
To put that homer total in perspective, Penn State DuBois only hit eight as a team in 43 games last year in winning the USCAA Small College World Series title.
Beith enjoyed a monster day at the plate, going 3-for-7 with three homers and seven RBIs to fuel the sweep and improve DuBois’ record to 15-4 overall and 6-0 in the PSUAC. Beith led the squad with two homers last season.
Beith was far from the lone DuBois player to produce at the plate in the twin bill. Teamnmate Brandon Sicheri was 3-for-6 with a double and a solo homer, while Tyler Yough was 3-for-5 with a double and solo homer of his own.
“Those were very important wins, but at the end to the day with have two more (today) against them,” said PSU DuBois coach Tom Calliari. “And, if we drop two (today), it really doesn’t mean anything. It’s just one more step to where we want to go.
“But, Brett Beith had three home runs on the day, and they kept pitching to him. Brandon Sicheri and Tyler Yough each hit one too, and we’re really not a home run hitting team. We hit a lot tonight, but last year at the World Series we didn’t hit one.
“That’s baseball, but it’s not who we are. We’re a team that gets on base and creates havoc on the bases and create runs with small ball. We have talented players who will run into one every now and again, but we don’t rely on that. That’s just not who we are.”
DuBois also got a strong start from senior Taylor Boland in Game 1 as he and his teammates got the best of Mont Alto ace Zach Garlin, who was the freshly minted conference Pitcher of the Week.
However, DuBois roughed up Garlin for seven runs, all earned, on seven hits — including four for extra bases — before Cory Lehman chased him from the game in the sixth with a two-out, two-run double to right center that gave the home team a 7-3 lead and all but put the game away.
DuBois raced out to a 5-0 lead after four innings, thanks in a large part to homers by Brandon Sicheri and Brett Beith — both of whom are left-handed hitters.
Those five runs proved to be more than enough for Boland, who tossed six innings on just 65 pitches. He allowed three runs, one earned, on seven hits while not walking a batter.
Boland also recorded six strikeouts, the last of which set a new program record for career strikeouts at 113. Brandon Orsich, now an assistant coach, held the previous mark with 112.
“Taylor has been our big game pitcher the past two years, and he continued to to do that today,” said Calliari. “He was in an early jam a couple times and pitched his way out of it, which gave us momentum. And, that momentum led to some confidence and helped us not play from behind tonight. i think that was the key.”
Boland kept Mont Alto off the scoreboard of the first five innings, getting some help from his defense along the way. Although, he did work a around a single and an error in the first.
Mont Alto’s biggest threat in that opening stretch came in the second when Jarrett Goodyear drew a leadoff walk and Blake Orndorff reached on an infield single. DuBois promptly got out of the inning though as Boland gunned down Goodyear at third on a sac bunt attempt before getting Kyle McKeon to hit into an inning-ending 4-6-3 double play.
Right fielder Bryce Dobson made a nice diving catch to end the third with a runner on base as Mont Alto failed to get a runner past second in those first five innings.
Meanwhile, the DuBois offense built a 5-0 lead for their senior righty to work with.
Sicheri opened the scoring with a bang as he belted a solo homer to right-center with one out in the second. DuBois pushed that lead to 3-0 in the third thanks to a two-out rally.
After Garlin retired the first two hitters, Lehman extended the inning with a single to right. That brought up Beith, who crushed a Garlin pitch overt the wall in right-center for a two-run homer.
DuBois then added to that lead with two more runs in the fourth.
Grant Lillard jump-started things with a double to left with one out. Garlin then got pinch-hitter to hit a chopper up the first base line for the second out. DuBois didn’t let the lefty off the hook though, as Kyle Elensky rifled a single just inside the third-base bag to score Lillard.
Garlin then tried to pick off Elensky, but he beat the throw to second by first baseman Goodyear. That hustled proved key as Colby Bodtorf followed with a two-out single to right to chase home Elensky for a 5-0 lead.
Jut when it looked like DuBois had all the momentum, Mont Alto made it a game with a three-run sixth.
Brady Bigler reached on an error to open the inning, while Caiden Smith followed with a single to center. Boland then fielded a comebacker off the bat of Wyatt Kissel for the first out.
Mont Alto broke the ice a batter later when Goodyear hit a chopper into the middle of the infield that went for an infield hit and scored Bigler. Orndorff followed with a RBI single to right, but Goodyear pulled up lame hustling around to third and was forced to leave the game with what appeared to be a hamstring injury.
Cameron Bailey then hit a sac fly to center to core pinch runner Tyler Koser to make it 5-3. Beith then came up with a huge defensive play as he sprinted in on a sinking line drive hit by McKeon and made a diving catch to end the inning with a runner on base.
The inning most likely helped keep Garlin in the game with things much closer, as Mont Alto sent their lefty ace back out of the bottom of the sixth.
He retired the first two hitters of the inning, but DuBois then put together another two rally against Garlin.
Elensky got things rolling with a single to center with two away to roll over the lineup. Elensky was 2-for-3 with the RBI and two runs scored in the No. 9spot in the order.
Bodtorf followed with a walk to bring Lehman to the plate, and belted a double to the right-center gap to plate both runners for a 7-3 advantage and ran Garlin from the game in the process.
Blaine Wilson relieved Garlin and needed just two pitches to get out of the inning. But, the damage had been done. DuBois scored six of its seven runs with two outs.
Ezeck Olinger came on to pitch the seventh for DuBois and struck out the first batter he faced before James Sibert singled and Bigler walked. Elensky ended things just like that though, as he snagged a liner off the bat of Smith at third and doubled-off Sibert to end the game.
In Game 2, Zack Tiracorda got the start and tossed a scoreless first, working around a walk with one out.
DuBois then wasted little time grabbing the lead against Mont Alto starter Sullivan. Bodtorf and Lehman each drew walks before Beith hammered a three-run homer to quickly make it 3-0.
Sullivan settled in from there and only allowed one more run over his final four innings of work.
That allowed Mont Alto to battle back into the game, as the visitors scored single runs in the second and fourth and two more in the sixth to tie the game up at 4-4. DuBois scored a run in the fourth on a Bodtorf RBI single during that stretch.
Mont Alto pulled Sullivan after five and brought on Luke Davis in relief. DuBois greeted him rudely with a big five-run bottom of the sixth to no only regain the lead break things open.
DuBois scored the first two runs of the inning on an Elensky groundout and Lehman sac fly before Beith and Yough punctuated the inning with back-to-back homers to make it 9-4. Beith’s was a two-run shot.
“Beith lost a ball in the lights when they scored to tie it (6th in Game 2) ... a routine popup,” said Calliari. “That has never happened. It was just one of those crazy things, but he came came up and redeemed himself. It was awesome to see.”
Casey Serine, who relieved Tiracorda in the sixth, tossed a 1-2-3 seventh to finish off the game and get the win. Tiracorda got a no-decision after throwing 5 2/3 innings. He gave up four runs, three earned, on nine hits while striking out three and walking one.
“Tiracorda just didn’t have his best stuff tonight,” said Calliari. “He was pitching behind a lot, but he battled and had a lot of unlucky plays happen to him that put a couple runs on the board. But, he battled through his lack of control and still gave us a chance to win.”
The two teams are back in action against each other again today with a doubleheader at Mont Alto that starts at 2 p.m.
GAME 1
PSU DUBOIS 7,
PSU MONT ALTO 3
Score by Innings
Mont Alto 000 003 0 — 3
DuBois 012 202 x — 7
PSU Mont Alto—3
James Sibert rf 4020, Brady Bigler 2100, Caiden Smith lf 4110, Wyatt Kissel dh 3000, Zach Garlin p 0000, Blaine Wilson p 0000, Jarrett Goodyear 1b 2021, Tyler Koser pr-1b 0100, Blake Orndorff 3b 3021, Cameron Bailey c 2001, Dylan Morgan cr 0000, Kyle McKeon ss 3000, Gavin Kissel 2b 3010. Totals: 26-2-8-3.
PSU DuBois—7
Colby Bodtorf ss 311, Cory Lehman 1b 4122, Brett Beith cf 3112, Tyler Yough 3b 1000, Alex Gavlock 2b 0000, Bryce Dobson rf 3000, Brandon Sicheri lf 3111, Grant Lillard c 3110, Aaron Miller dh 1000, Jake Sikora ph-dh 2000, Taylor Boland p 0000, Ezeck Olinger p 0000, Kyle Elensky 2b-3b 3221. Totals: 26-7-8-7.
Errors: Mont Alto 0, DuBois 2. LOB: Mont Alto 6, DuBois 5. DP: Mont Alto 0, DuBois 2. 2B: Lehman, Lillard HR: Beith, Sicheri. SAC: Bigler. SF: Bailey. HBP: Yough (by Garlin). SB: Yough 2, Elensky.
Pitching
Mont Alto: Zach Garlin-5 2/3 IP, 8 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 3 BB, 5 SO, 1 HB; Blaine Wilson-1/3 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 SO.
DuBois: Taylor Boland-6 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 SO; Ezeck Olinger-1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 SO.
Winning pitcher: Boland. Losing pitcher: Garlin.
GAME 2
PSU DUBOIS 9,
PSU MONT ALTO 4
Score by Innings
Mont Alto 010 102 0 — 4
DuBois 300 105 x — 9
PSU Mont Alto—4
Brady Bigler cf 4000, Kyle McKeon ss 4000, James Sibert rf 3110, Wyatt Kissel 1b 3010, Brady Cullen pr 0100, Blake Orndorff 3b 3130, Caiden Smith dh 3011, Joshua Sullivan p 0000, Luke Davis p 0000, Braden Zeger p 0000, Jonathan Lentvorsky lf 3100, Kyle Nolan pr 0000, Matthew Boyer c 3021, Dtlan Morgan cr 0000, Gavin Kissel 2b 3011 Totals: 29-4-9-3.
PSU DuBois—9
Colby Bodtorf ss 2211, Cory Lehman c-1b 43101, Brett Beith cf 4225, Tyler Yough 3b 4131, Alex Gavlock 2b 0000, Brandon Sicheri lf 3020, Grant Lillard rf-c 4000, Tylor Herzing dh 2210, Zack Tiracorda p 0000, Casey Serine p 0000, Tanner LaBenne 1b 0000, Bryce Dobson rf 0000, Kyle Elensky 2b-3b 3101. Totals: 25-9-9-9.
Errors: Mont Alto 1, DuBois 0. . 2B: Boyer; Lough, Sicheri. 3B: Herzing. HR: Beith 2, Yough. SAC: LaBenne. SB: Bodtorf 2, Elensky. CS: Bodtorf.
Pitching
Mont Alto: Josua Sullivan-5 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 3 BB, 3 SO; Luke Davis-1/3 IP, 1 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 0 SO; Braden Zeger-2/3 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 0 SO.
DuBois: Zack Tiracorda-5.2 IP, 9 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 3 SO; Casey Serine-1/1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 SO.
Winning pitcher: Boland. Losing pitcher: Garlin.
