Baseball splits with PS-Mont Alto
Mont Alto, PA - The Penn State Fayette baseball team split a double header against Penn State Mont Alto Saturday to close its regular season, and it now awaits its post-season fate.
In the opener, Mont Alto won, 11-0.
Fayette was limited to four hits with Noah Hanson (New Kensington, PA/Kiski HS) looking best with a double.
Needing a win in the second game to keep its PSUAC tournament hopes alive, Fayette (12-17, 7-8) won, 11-10.
Fayette jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first.
TJ Lux (West Newton, PA/Yough HS) walked to lead off the inning and he scored four batters later on a passed ball.
Jaryn Addis (Grindstone, PA/Brownsville HS) followed with a two-run single to give Fayette the three-run lead, but Mont Alto (23-16, 11-4) scored four runs in the second.
Fayette scored two runs in the bottom of the inning to take a 5-4 lead on a two-run single by Garrett Stevenson (Hempfield, PA/Hempfield HS).
Mont Alto exploded for five more runs in the third to take a 9-5 lead, but Fayette would not quit.
In the fourth, Fayette scored three runs to make the score 9-8 as Hanson, Austin Clark (Rices Landing, PA/Jefferson Morgan) and Jake Frick (Dunbar, PA/Connellsville HS) each drove in runs.
Fayette took a 10-9 lead in the fifth as it scored two runs as Lux doubled in Jeffrey Doran (West Mifflin, PA/West Mifflin HS) and then Lux scored on a Stevenson ground out.
Down to its last out, Mont Alto tied the game in the seventh on a Chayse Fisher double, but Fayette, clinging to any hope of making the PSUAC tournament, won when Stevenson doubled in Lux with two outs.
Lux finished with three hits while both Stevenson and Doran each had two hits with Stevenson driving in four runs.
Austin Benton (Lusby, MD/Patuxent HS) won the game in relief for Fayette.
Now, Fayette must wait to see how Penn State Great Allegheny (11-13, 6-7) does Monday against Penn State New Kensington (3-18, 2-11).
If New Kensington sweeps Great Allegheny, Fayette will make the PSUAC tournament but if the teams split or if GA sweeps, then Fayette will be on the outside looking in.
For more information on the baseball team, to go https://www.psfathletics.com/sports/bsb/index.
Written by Bill Hughes