Bethany walks off Behrend to close season with 4-3 win

Andrew Woodley, Sports Information Director

BETHANY, W.Va. (May 8) - The Bethany College baseball team rallied from a three-run deficit and senior Ryan Nickerson (Huntington Beach, Calif./Huntington Beach) delivered a clutch walk-off base-hit to propel the Bison to a 4-3 win in the season-finale at Bethany Park. 

THE MATCHUP

• Bethany 4, Penn State Behrend 3 (Box Score)
• Records: Bethany 13-23 | Penn State Behrend 23-15
• Location: Bethany Park | Bethany, West Virginia

HOW IT HAPPENED

• The Lions had the lead three batters into the game when shortstop Scott Sada drove a solo home run over the left field fence to give Behrend a 1-0 lead.
• Both starting pitchers, including Bethany junior Tyler Frazee (Markleysburg, Pa./Uniontown), settled in and kept their opponents off of the scoreboard through the next four innings.
• Behrend added to its lead in the sixth inning when they pushed another run across with a pair of singles to make the score 2-0.
• Bethany had a runner on third with two outs in the bottom of the frame. Freshman Kiefer Bishop (Pittsburgh, Pa./OLSH) hit a high fly ball to right field, but the Behrend right fielder climbed the fence to rob Bishop and keep the score 2-0.
• The Lions tacked on a third run in the seventh inning to take a 3-0 lead, but the Bison began to chip away in the bottom of the frame.
• Back-to-back singles to lead off the inning and a hit-batter loaded the bases with one out. A second hit-batter and a bases loaded walk drawn by Nickerson pushed across two runs, but the Bison were unable to do any further damage.
• Bethany had runners at first and second with two outs in the eighth inning, when junior Jake Stemmerich (Greensburg, Pa./Greater Latrobe) doubled down the left field line to bring home one run to tie the game. The trail runner however was thrown out at the plate to keep the score tied at 3-3.
• Sophomore pitcher Matt Colton (Pittsburgh, Pa./Upper St. Clair) came on in the ninth and stranded the go-ahead run at second base with a fly ball out to center.
• Junior Neil Woods (Pittsburgh, Pa./North Allegheny) led the bottom of the ninth off with a single and advanced to second on a balk by the pitcher.
• Nickerson took advantage of the situation and drove the ball into the right-center field gap to drive in Woods and help the Bison close the season with a walk-off win.

GAME NOTES

• Frazee tossed six innings and limted the Lions to two runs on seven hits with one strikeout over six innings to earn a no-decision.
• Nickerson led the team with two hits, two RBI and the walk-off single in his final game at Bethany Park.
• Both senior Andrew Gilliland (Gahanna, Ohio/Bishop Hartley) and Stemmerich had three hits, while Stemmerich had the RBI-double.
• Sophomore Isaac Wengert (Jonestown, Pa./Northern Lebanon) added two hits and two runs at the dish.