BEAVER FALLS, Pa. – Playing just its fourth and fifth games in the last 13 days, the Bethany College baseball team dropped both ends of a doubleheader Saturday at Geneva by scores of 11-4 and 2-1.
The Bison (9-13) found themselves staring at a 6-0 deficit in the first inning of the opening game, as the first six batters for Golden Tornadoes (17-14) collected hits and scored. Bethany scored once in the second inning on an RBI ground out by sophomore LF Alex Evans (Washington, Pa.), but the GTs posted two more runs in the third and another in the fourth to construct a 9-1 margin.
Bethany’s big inning came in the fifth when sophomore pinch-hitter Matt Paonessa (Niagara Falls, N.Y.) stroked a two-run single and sophomore 1B Brad Kubis (Aliquippa, Pa./Hopewell) hit a sacrifice fly to trim the deficit to 9-4, but Geneva capped the scoring with a pair of tallies in the sixth inning.
The Bison managed 11 hits in the opener, but only one went for extra bases. Sophomore catcher David Pivik (Pittsburgh, Pa./Plum) went 3-for-3 with a run scored and Evans and freshman Anthonie Farrar (Carmichaels, Pa.) both had two hits. On the mound, senior Mike Muklewicz (Bridgeport, Ohio) started and took the loss.
Game two belonged to the pitching staffs, as BC freshman starter Zac Edmiston (California, Pa.) and Geneva’s Doug Sanson swapped zeroes through the first three frames. Bethany took its first lead of the day in the fourth inning when Kubis belted his first collegiate home run for a 1-0 Green and White lead.
Geneva came back to knot the score at 1-1 when back-to-back two-out doubles in the bottom of the fourth. In the fifth, the GTs struck for the go-ahead run off senior reliever Mike Kochman (Pittsburgh, Pa./Serra Catholic) after a leadoff double and one-out single.
Bethany had the tying run reach base in both the sixth and seventh innings, but BC was unable to get them home. In the sixth, Paonessa hit a leadoff single, but a double play wiped out the chance. Then in the seventh, freshman DH Dylan Wassel (Elizabeth, Pa./Elizabeth Forward) smacked a one-out double, but a strike out and ground out ended the game and gave Geneva the sweep.
The Bison offense totaled just four hits in the loss, which included Kubis’s home run, Wassel’s double and singles from Paonessa and Evans. Edmiston took a no-decision from his second start this year after allowing one run on two hits with two strikeouts and one walk. Following Kochman’s inning of work, senior Adam Nyswaner (McDonald, Pa./South Fayette) tossed a scoreless inning of relief.
After taking Easter Sunday off, the Bison return to action with doubleheaders Monday at Saint Vincent and Tuesday at home against Franciscan before hosting Geneva for a single game on Wednesday.
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