MARCY, N.Y. – The Penn College Wildcats won the 2014-15 North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) Baseball Championship after defeating Penn State Berks 9-7 Sunday. The win left the Wildcats a perfect 3-0 through the three-day, double-elimination tournament held at SUNY Poly this Friday through Sunday.
The Wildcats, entering the tournament as the fourth and final seed, knocked off each of the higher seeded teams en route to their first-ever NEAC title, defeating host and top seed SUNY Poly Friday, second seeded Penn State Abington Saturday and the third seeded Berks Nittany Lions Sunday. Tournament MVP honors went to sophomore Cole Weachock (Pottsville, Pa.) after an outstanding performance at the plate. The rightfielder had a multi-hit performance with at least one extra base hit and one RBI in all three contests en route to finishing 6-for-12 with three doubles, two triples, four RBIs, two runs scored, one walk and no strikeouts.
Today’s contest saw both teams got on the board in the second, as Berks led off the inning with sophomore Luke Erb (Mertztown, Pa.) driving in a run on a sacrifice hit before Penn matched with an RBI single from freshman Noah Esposito (Williamsport, Pa.). The Wildcats would then take a 4-1 lead with three runs in the third on an RBI double from senior Zach Weil (Kutztown, Pa.) and an RBI triple from Weachock.
That would lead to a wild fourth inning, with Berks beginning it with four runs in the top of the frame. After loading the bases, juniors Keeanu Erb (Douglassville, Pa.) and Nick Zipay (Pottstown, Pa.) each drew walks to bring in a pair of runs before sophomore Cory Fox (Boyertown, Pa.) would then single down the right field line to bring in another two runs to give the Nittany Lions a 5-4 lead. Penn would get out of the inning from there after relief pitcher Nick Perna (Frenchtown, N.J.) forced two straight groundouts to end the frame.
Penn would then answer offensively with five runs of their own in the bottom of the inning. A walk and a single began the inning before junior Jeremy Rall (Williamsport, Pa.) singled to left center to bring in a run. Freshman Carlos Rodriguez (Guaynabo, P.R.) would then lay down a sacrifice bunt that brought in another run, followed by sophomore Evan Vigna (McAdoo, Pa.) ripping a single to centerfield that helped bring in two more runs and ultimately left him on third after a fielding error. Vigna would then be brought him two batters later for the final run of the inning, which left Penn with a 9-5 lead.
After a quiet fifth inning, Berks would take advantage of a Penn fielding error to score an unearned run in the sixth to make it 9-6. They had the opportunity for more in the seventh after loading the bases with two outs, but Perna again got out of the jam with a strikeout to end the threat.
Berks would get on the board again in the eighth on a two-out sacrifice fly RBI by senior Kyle Hartman (Mohnton, Pa.) to make it 9-7. The score would remain that way into the top of the ninth, leaving Penn three outs away from the title. To get those, they called on junior ace Ryan Hostrander (Williamsport, Pa.), who did just that by closing out the game with a 1-2-3 inning to clinch the championship for the Wildcats.
Vigna finished 3-for-5 and scored two runs for Penn, while Weil went 2-for-3 with two RBIs and two runs scored and Weachock had a double and a triple on his two hits while driving in a run. Perna finished with two strikeouts and gave up two runs (one earned) on three hits in 3.2 innings of relief on the mound to record the win.
Fox drove in three runs on two hits and scored one of his own for Berks. Freshman Pearce Harhigh (Harrisburg, Pa.) finished 2-for-4 with a run scored and freshman pitcher Sean Pavlik (Boyertown, Pa.) gave up one unearned run on three hits with one strikeout during five innings of relief duty.
Despite the loss, Penn State Berks (20-17-1) will now receive the NEAC’s automatic qualifying bid to the NCAA Tournament due to Penn College still being in the provisional stage of becoming a full-time member of the NCAA and thus not eligible for its tournament play. Berks will find out who their first-round opponent will be on Sunday night.