Baseball

Walkoff Home Run Propels Penn State Harrisburg in NCAA Baseball Opening Round

HARRISBURG, Pa. - No. 14 Penn State Harrisburg opened the NCAA Division III Baseball Championships on Friday morning with a 5-3 victory against Bridgewater State University on a Brendan Henn walk off homerun with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th inning.  

Playing at home, the host Nittany Lions trailed 3-0 after four innings but came back with three runs in the bottom of the 6th to tie up the game on a Blaine Waltimyer RBI double, Tim Haftl RBI single, and a Demetre Koutras III RBI groundout. 

The game settled in with 17 straight outs until Braeden Piotrowski walked with 2 outs in the bottom of the ninth.  Bridgewater St. made a pitching change, bringing in Nick Reiser for Michael Cobb, and on a 1-0 count, Brendan Henn deposited a fastball to center field ending the game.

Josh Berzonski threw 3 shutout innings to pick up the win on the mound for the Nittany Lions after entering the game in the 7th inning.  Starter Danny Eden threw six innings, scattering eight hits, striking out four, and giving up three earned runs.

Coy Schwanger went 3-for-4 at the plate for Harrisburg with a double while Henn finished 2-for-5 and the two game-winning RBIs on the walk off home run.
Penn State Harrisburg (35-9) moves on to the winner’s bracket on Saturday afternoon and will play the winner of Friday’s matchup between No. 22/24 Randolph-Macon (28-13) and (RV) Elizabethtown (31-12) at 3:30pm on Saturday.

Bridgewater State falls to 26-15 on the season and will play in an elimination game on Saturday at Noon against the loser of the Randolph-Macon/Elizabethtown matchup. 
 

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The United East boasts 17 NCAA Division III full member institutions which include: Bryn Athyn College, Cairn University, Cedar Crest College, Clarks Summit University, Gallaudet University, Keystone College, Lancaster Bible College, Notre Dame of Maryland University, Penn College, Penn State Abington, Penn State Berks, Penn State Harrisburg, Rosemont College, Saint Elizabeth University, St. Mary's College of Maryland, University of Valley Forge, and Wilson College. For more information, please visit gounitedeast.com.