Fitchburg State Opens up Florida Trip with Extra Inning W

Winter Haven, Fla. – Junior Johan Asencio's (Clinton, Mass.) RBI single in the bottom of the 12^th inning propelled the Fitchburg State University baseball team past the Nittany Lions of Penn State-Abington 7-6 on day one of its spring trip at the RussMatt Central Florida Baseball Invitational.

The Basics

Score: Fitchburg State University 7, Penn State – Abington 6 (12 Innings)
Records: Fitchburg State (2-2) | Penn State – Abington (4-4)

How It Happened

Penn State opened the scoring in the top of the first inning. Sophomore Darrien Mogel (Reading, PA) delivered the big hit of the inning a double to left field with two outs scoring sophomore Zach Morales (Barrington, NJ) and teammate Ryan McCarty (Yardley, PA) to push the Nittany Lions lead to 3-0.

Senior Jeff Gull (Rutland, Mass.) led off the bottom of the third inning with a double to center field to get things going for the Falcons. Two batters later senior Brandon Lefebvre (Leominster, Mass.) doubled to left field to put runners on second and third with one out. Junior Nicholas Cordeau (Melrose, Mass.) laced a single up the middle to plate both runners to cut the deficit to 3-2 after three complete.

The visitors would add a pair of runs in the top of the fifth inning to increase the lead to 5-2. With one out in the bottom of the sixth inning both junior Zachary May (Rochdale, Mass.) and senior Matthew Pingitore (Rutland, Mass.) would draw walks. A single to centerfield from Gull would score May and Pingitore added another run when he came across the plate after a failed pick-off attempt at first base to make it a 5-4 game.

Trailing 6-4 in the bottom of the ninth, the Falcons manufactured a pair of runs to send the game into extra innings. With runners on second and third the Green and Gold added a run off a wild pitch and RBI sacrifice fly from newcomer May.

Senior Joshua Macomber (Berkley, Mass.) opened the 12^th inning with a walk and advanced to second on a sacrifice from May, two batters later Asencio ended the game with a clutch single to right field.

Inside the Numbers

• Senior Jack Gallant (Hammond Plains, NS) earned his first win of the season for the Falcons. His stat line read: 3.2 innings pitched in relief, no hits, no runs, two walks and five strikeouts.
• Penn State pitcher, junior Brandon Hightower (Sicklerville, NJ) was tabbed with the loss. He went a third of an inning with one hit, one run and one walk
• Cordeau batted 4-for-6 with 2 RBI's while Gull was 2-for-5 with 1 RBI and a run scored.
• Both teams combined for 18 hits on the day.

 Up Next

The Falcons will square with Suffolk University tomorrow for a doubleheader starting at 2:45pm at Lake Myrtle Complex.