READING, PA - The Penn State Berks baseball team exploded out of the gate in the must-win seventh game to capture its second straight North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) West Division Championship on Sunday afternoon at Hintz Athletic Field. The Nittany Lions bounced back with a 13-5 win in the decisive final game after Gallaudet University extended the tournament with a 5-4 win earlier in the day.

Senior Rich Schlamowit earned the Tournament MVP honors after going 4-for-6 with four RBI and was a home run short of the cycle in the title game. For the tournament, Schlamowitz batted .588 (10-for-16) with eight RBI, six runs scored, three doubles and a triple.

The Nittany Lions collected a season-best 20 hits, 16 of which came from the two through seven spot of the order. Nick Vitelli, Kyle Hartman and Christian Marcin each collected three hits, while Connor Corson and Kevin Heilman both had two. Heilman finished the game with three runs batted in, while Corson and Hartman each scored twice.

Ryan Tantala gutted out a complete game performance on the mound for the Nittany Lions (18-22). The sophomore right-hander worked out of jams with minimal damage allowed, surrendering five runs (three earned).

The Bison (25-17) started the game of with a triple, a walk and an RBI-single. Tantala was then facing NEAC Player of the Year William Bissell with nobody out and runners on first and second. Bissell hit a low liner to second, Heilman made the catch, flipped to Vitelli at second, who then fired to Hartman at first for a triple play.

The momentum carried over into Berks’ at-bat, as the Nittany Lions put up runs in each of the first six innings. They recorded a five spot in the first inning and after a shutdown inning by Tantala in the top of the second, Berks tacked on two more to go up 7-1. The Nittany Lions put a runner on base to lead off six of the teams eight at-bats.

In addition to the triple play in the first inning, the Nittany Lions turned double plays in the third and sixth inning. Gallaudet had two players on in the second inning, but Tantala got out of the inning by picking a runner off of first base.

Schlamowitz entered the tournament batting .265, but after a weekend of ripping the cover off the ball he now sports a .310 average. He routinely found himself in an 0-2 hole, but after fighting off pitches and working the count, Schlamowitz was able to find a pitch to spray into the gap.

The Nittany Lions will face Castleton State, who won the NEAC East Division Championship in a best-of-three series beginning on Saturday, May 5. The games will be played in Utica, New York on the campus of SUNYIT