Baseball

After Penn State (1-1) pulled away in the late innings of game one with East Tennessee State (1-1), the Buccaneers got their revenge on the Nittany Lions in game two.

The Buccaneers beat the Lions, 8-3, sustaining a late push to capture their first win of the season and hand the Lions their first loss.

Much like game one, Penn State jumped out to an early lead when right fielder Aaron Novak scored on an error by Bucs' pitcher Griffin Krieg in the second inning. Shortstop Taylor Skerpon followed that up with a single that drove in left fielder James Coates to put the Lions up, 2-0.

The Bucs countered in the next inning with scoring plays via a RBI double by first baseman Clinton Freeman and a RBI single by second baseman Derek Niesman.

The Bucs added one run in the fourth, sixth and seventh innings to go up, 5-2.

The best chance of the day for the Lions came in the top of the eigth inning. Penn State loaded the bases with no outs before center fielder Steve Snyder hit a sacrifice fly to to drive home Elliot Searer, but then second baseman Luis Montesinos struck out and first baseman J.J. White grounded out to third to end the scoring threat.

After the Lions cut the deficit to two runs, the Bucs' Niesman homered to left field to bring home Freeman and left fielder Zack Thompson.

Freeman followed up by striking out the side in the top of the 9th inning to end the game.

The Lions only mustered up three hits opposed to the Bucs' 13, and Lions' pitcher Steven Hill suffered his first loss in his first appearance as he gave up four runs and eight hits over six innings.

The Bucs and the Lions will square off in a rubber match Sunday at 1:05 p.m.