Franciscan Baseball Drops Double Header to Pitt-Bradford

BRADFORD, PA- Franciscan University of Steubenville’s baseball team is still searching for their first conference win of the season after the Barons lost both games of a double header to the Panthers of the University of Pitt-Bradford, 9-2 and 10-1.

In the first game, leftfielder Chris Clynes continued producing offensively for FUS, going 2-3 with 1 RBI. Clynes is second on the team hitting .290 on the season. Third baseman Nathan Cain went 1-2, and second baseman Sam Quillen went 1-3 with the other RBI for the Barons. Starting pitcher Rob Penante went 5 innings, giving up 11 hits, 5 earned runs, while striking out 3. FUS faced a superb pitching performance by D.J. Rose for the Panthers, who pitched a complete game giving up 4 hits, 2 earned runs while striking out 11.

The strong point for the Panthers offensively was Geoff Brabham who went 4-4 with 2 RBIs. The second game proved much of the same for the Barons, who were outhit 14-5. Clynes had another solid performance, going 1-3. Shortstop Anthony Pontarelli, first baseman Dustin Pagano, and catcher Dave Dupuy also all went 1-3. Pagano scored Franciscan’s lone run in the 5th. Starting pitcher Nathan Cain pitched well despite little run support, going 4 innings and giving up 4 earned runs off of 8 hits while striking out 4. Reliever Sam Quillen also gave up 4 earned runs in two innings of work.

Pitt-Bradford got another great pitching performance, this time from Jeremy Grove who went the whole game, giving up just 5 hits, 3 walks, and no earned runs while striking out 10. Justin Bifano went 3-4 with an RBI for the Panthers, who improve their record to 9-12 (5-7) on the season.

Franciscan coach Doc Marrow had praise for a few of his players despite the tough losses. “Jonathan Duran,” he said, “played two fantastic games, with two great inning-ending diving catches. Clynes continued to hit well, as he has done for us all season. We got strong performances again at shortstop and third base by Anthony Pontarelli and Nathan Cain. And Dave Dupuy did well catching both games of a double-header.” The Barons now stand 3-20 overall and 0-10 in the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference.

They take a break from conference play as they travel to face Bethany College in a single game on April 16, at 4 p.m.