Baseball: Stoneman reaches 100 career hits in split with Cougars

Drew VonScio, Student Assistant for Athletic Communications 

PITTSBURGH, Pa. – Bethany returned to the diamond Sunday afternoon for two more PAC games against Chatham. Colton Stoneman picked up his 100th career hit in the second inning of the second game as the Bison won game one 13-11 before dropping game two 13-12.

The Cougars struck first in the opening inning before Luke Beatty launched his second homerun of the season to center; his three-run bomb also scored Grant Schaffner and Stoneman.

In the top of the fifth, the Green and White would post six with CJ Owens driving in a pair with a single to left plating Josh Speaker and Beatty before Nick Roell singled up the middle to score Alec Berg and Owens. Schaffner later singled to right which allowed Roell and McKee to round the bases.

After the hosts chipped a trio of runs off of their deficit in the sixth, Beatty blasted a ball to center again for his third of the year as the two-run homerun also scored Stoneman. Chatham would then use the seventh and eighth innings to tie things up after trailing by seven.

Beatty served as the hero in the top of the 11th with a double that drove in Schaffner and Stoneman as the Bison polished off a 13-11 win. Trey Mantle threw six strong innings while Payton Zupko went 4.1 innings with conceding just one run and striking out four.

Just as they did in the opener, Chatham posted the first run of the game in the second half of the doubleheader. The next half inning saw Berg single to score Devin Toothman followed by Stoneman's history-making knock drive in Roell and Cory Newman.

Newman picked up an RBI in the top of the fourth with a fielder's choice that plated Speaker before a passed ball led to Berg crossing the plate. Chatham would subsequently score the next five runs to take a one-run lead.

The top of the sixth saw Beatty hit into a double play with Roell scoring before another passed ball paved the way for Stoneman to come home. Just an inning later, the Green and White put up three more runs that started with a Newman triple scoring Berg and Toothman. Roell's sacrifice fly allowed Newman to score before Riley Brendel's single plated Stoneman.

Chatham answered back in the bottom of the seventh with six runs to flip the game on its head. Bethany went from leading by five to trailing by one in the blink of an eye.

Mike Hines would score for the Bison in the top of the eighth as he advanced to third on a throwing error and immediately crossed the plate. Unfortunately, a throwing error against the Bison would see the Cougars walk it off in the bottom of the ninth and win 13-12.

After picking up just one win in four attempts this weekend, Bethany will regroup and hope for a turning of the tide Wednesday when they travel for a non-conference game against Penn State-New Kensington. First pitch is at 4 p.m