Altoona, PA – The D'Youville baseball team split their second conference doubleheader of the season on Saturday afternoon, falling to the Penn State-Altoona Lions 14-4 in game one and winning game two 7-2.

D'Youville was first on the board in the top of the first. After leading off the game with a double, freshman Dylan Haak (Depew, NY/Depew) scored on a throwing error by the pitcher to make the game 1-0. Eric Simoncelli (Hamburg, NY/Hamburg) reached base on an error followed by singles from Travis Macrides (Manlius, NY/Fayetteville-Manlius) and Josh Hammer (Amherst, NY/Sweet Home) to load the bases. Nick Stimpfel (Aquebogue, NY/Riverhead) then filed out to center to drive in Simoncelli from third and extending the lead to 2-0 after one inning.

Altoona would tie the game in the bottom of the second and the game would remain tied until the fifth inning. Simoncelli led off the inning with a double with Macrides bringing him home in the next at-bat with a single to right field. The Lions would then make the game theirs in the bottom of the fifth, responding with 12 runs to take a 14-3 lead.

In the bottom of the seventh, Thomas Brummer (Amherst, NY/St. Joe's) led off with a double. Two batters later, Macrides would pick up another RBI by driving in Brummer and making the game 14-4. D'Youville was unable to dent the Lion lead any further with Altoona taking game one 14-4.

Macrides led the team with three hits and two RBI in the game, with Brummer adding two hits. Steve Vik (Hopkins, SC/Lower Richland) picked up the loss after going 4.1 innings. Brian Grabiec (Cheektowaga, NY/Maryvale) made his first appearance of the season, allowing only two hits.

In game two, the Spartans began the scoring in a similar way as game one. Haak again led off the game with a hit. After his leadoff single, Dylan stole second and advanced to third on a throwing error. Two batters later, Simoncelli singled to left, driving in Haak and giving the Spartans a 1-0 lead after one inning.

D'Youville would add to their lead in the top of the fourth inning in a big way. Macrides led off the inning with a single followed by a single from Hammer to move Travis to second. Stimpfel then came to the plate, singling and driving in Macrides, moving Hammer to third but Stimpfel was thrown out at second trying to extend his single into a double. Following the second out of the inning, Matt Critelli (Camden, NY/Camden) came to bat and belted his first career home run, driving in Hammer and extending the Spartan lead to 4-0.

Altoona scored two runs in the bottom of the sixth, but D'Youville would get a run back in the top of the seventh. Michael LiPani (Irondequoit, NY/Irondequoit) walked to begin the inning. Haak then reached on a throwing error, advancing LiPani to third. Brummer then reached on a fielder's choice to score LiPani and make the game 5-2.

Critelli singled to begin the inning in the top of the ninth. Haak singled two batters later with a Brummer walk to follow, loading the bases. Next up was Simoncelli, who singled to drive in LiPani and Haak and brought the game to its final score of 7-2.

Kevin Kabacinski (Buffalo, NY/St. Joe's) was outstanding in his first win of the season, pitching a complete game over nine innings allowing two earned runs and striking out three. Simoncelli led the team with three RBI followed by Critelli with two. Haak and Critelli each accounted for two runs while Haak, Simoncelli and Critelli each had two hits.

D'Youville will travel to Keuka on Tuesday, April 5^th to play the Wolfpack at 1 and 3:30pm.