BB drops season opener
The Penn State Fayette baseball team opened its season Sunday with a 16-6 loss at Allegany College of Maryland.
"We faced some adversity early on and but I'm hopeful (moving forward) with how we fought back," head coach Ryan Encapera said. "There is plenty of baseball to play and we will improve."
The game could not have started any better for Fayette as Nate Zimcosky (Uniontown, PA/Laurel Highlands HS) led off the game with a home run. While Zimcosky's blast gave Fayette the early lead, it did not last long as the Trojans scored nine runs in the home half of the first off Jorge Palmas (Upper St. Clair, PA/Upper St. Clair HS). Palmas pitched into the second but only lasted one inning-plus. He gave up 11 runs, eight of which were earned.
"Nate's leadoff home run energized us," Encapera said. "However, (Allegany) responded with a number of hard hits in the first that we could not overcome."
Down 13-1 going into the fourth, Andrew Despot (Moon, PA/Moon Area HS) had an RBI single and then Fayette added four more runs in the fifth to make the score 13-6. Chris Rendulic (Port Vue, PA/South Allegheny HS) and Cade Warrick (Mill Run, PA/Connellsville HS) scored on the same wild pitch while Kade Musgrove (Dunbar, PA/Connellsville HS) had an RBI double.
That closed out the scoring for Fayette while Kaleb Scott (Uniontown, PA/Laurel Highlands HS) had six strikeouts over six innings of relief work.
Fayette finished with six hits and four errors while Allegany had 16 hits and a pair of miscues.
"Defensively, we were sloppy, and we will fix it," Encapera said before speaking about Allegany head coach Mason Heyne, a former assistant locally at California University of PA. "Coach Heyne is a good friend of mine and has some talented players who had big games."
Fayette will play a pair of doubleheaders this coming weekend as it heads to Central Penn Saturday and hosts CCAC Boyce Sunday.
For more information on the Penn State Fayette baseball team, go to https://www.psathletics.com/sports/bsb/index.