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Blue Devils lose pitcher’s duel, then slugfest to Behrend Lions

Special to The OBSERVER

ERIE, Pa. — Fredonia dropped both ends of a college baseball doubleheader Sunday at Penn State Behrend, 2-1 in the opener and 11-10 in the nightcap.

Luke Kuczewski was the Game 1 losing pitcher, his first loss of the season after three wins. The senior right-hander and Behrend’s Phil Myers each pitched a complete-game five-hitter. Myers improved to 3-0.

Kole Brink had two of the Fredonia hits, plus one RBI.

The Blue Devils combined for 13 hits in Game 2, two each by Kevin Yirinec, William Clifford, Tyler Phillips, and Brian Chatt, but their defense did them in. They committed six errors leading to six unearned runs.

Here’s how it happened:

GAME ONE

Behrend’s Scott Sada and John Brittner were thorns in the side of Kuczewski. Sada had two hits and scored both runs. Brittner drove Sada in both times, with a single up the middle in the third for a 1-1 tie and a triple to center for a 2-1 lead in the fifth. Kuczewski held the rest of the Behrend lineup to one hit in 15 at-bats. He finished with five strikeouts and one walk.

Fredonia took a 1-0 lead in the top of the second. Clifford led off the inning with a single and scored on a two-out single by Brink. Russell Mistretta sacrificed Clifford to second, who then alertly scampered to third on an infield groundout, followed by Brink’s RBI single.

Brink singled to lead off the fifth, stole second, then was thrown out for the second out of the inning trying to advance to third in a grounder to short.

The Blue Devils threatened again with two outs in the top of the seventh when Phillips doubled and advanced to third on a wild pitch. Myers induced Jon Morrison to ground to third for the final out.

GAME TWO

Yirinec doubled in the first Fredonia run in the top of the first. Behrend took a 7-1 lead with five runs in the first and two in the second off a pair of Fredonia pitchers, Anthony Kinney and Billy Sanborn. Four of the runs were unearned.

Yirinec worked his way around the bases to score Fredonia’s second run in the third. He was hit by a pitch, went to second on a wild pitch, to third on a groundout, and scored on another wild pitch.

The Blue Devils scored six times in the fourth to take an 8-7 lead. Nicolas Fiore doubled in two runs and Clifford doubled in one. A sacrifice fly by Mistretta tied the score and an RBI single by Brink put Fredonia ahead.

Behrend retook the lead with four runs in the sixth. Two errors figured into the scoring. Fredonia used three pitchers in the inning: Ryan Hann, Ryan Howard, and Kenneth Jaroszek. Howard was tagged with the loss.

Behrend had four errors of its own, two in the top of the seventh. The Blue Devils put runners on first and second to start the inning. With two outs, Yirinec walked to load the bases. Fredonia cut the deficit to 11-10 on an RBI single by Clifford followed by Behrend’s second error of the inning. Ryan Weaver picked up the save when he retired Mistretta for the final out with runners at second and third.

WHAT’S NEXT?

The Blue Devils have three non-conference road games later this week: Friday at Pitt.-Bradford, and a doubleheader Saturday at Medaille.

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