Gearing up
Penn State Fayette baseball readies for PSUAC play
Penn State Fayette鈥檚 baseball team had made trips to Florida and to eastern Pennsylvania with hopes of prepping for the upcoming PSUAC season.
While head coach Ryan Encapera felt his team was gradually improving, the Roaring Lions had no wins to show for it until breaking through with a couple victories on Friday.
Fayette began a six-games-in-three-days slate at Bucks County Community College in Newton with a doubleheader sweep of Manor College, 14-3 in six innings and 5-2 in four innings.
The Roaring Lions fell twice to host Bucks County on Saturday, 12-5 and 13-3, the lost a pair to Central Penn on Sunday, 7-4 and 10-5, to wrap up the trip.
Fayette (2-14) begins PSUAC play Saturday when it hosts Penn State DuBois at 1 and 3 p.m., then travels to DuBois for games at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Sunday.
鈥淐onference play is tough,鈥� Encapera said. 鈥淵ou have to be able to play four games over the weekend. That鈥檚 part of the reason for our Florida trip and the eastern Pa. trip, we were scheduled to play six and six just to kind of acclimate ourselves to the conference grind.鈥�
While the Roaring Lions only played four games in Florida with two cancelled due to weather, Encapera feels his team鈥檚 non-conference schedule helped his team improve greatly.
鈥淔or any team it鈥檚 a challenge playing six games in three days because of pitching and then traveling on the road and other things,鈥� Encapera said. 鈥淚t puts a little extra pressure on me and my guys.
鈥淏ut like being on the road, exploring new things and learning a lot. I think it鈥檚 been very good for our chemistry, getting the guys to come together. We had that Florida trip and then this one and probably the best thing about it is it has us playing a lot better because of it.鈥�
Fayette got a pair of complete games in its sweep of Manor College.
In the first game, Remington Lessman pitched all six innings, allowing three runs on six hits with three walks and nine strikeouts, and helped his own cause with a double, single and RBI.
Seven other players had two hits in the game. There were Ashton Ray with a double and three RBIs, James Knapton with a double and two RBIs, AJ Segarra with a double and an RBI, Lucas Villchez with a double, Frank Macioce with two RBIs, Manny Stitch and Connor Perry.
Hunter Smiley added a triple and two RBIs.
In the second game, Ray pitched all four innings, giving up two runs on four hits with two walks and seven strikeouts.
Brogan Meighen had two hits, including a double, and an RBI for the Roaring Lions and Macioce added a single and an RBI.
鈥淚t had been awhile,鈥� Encapera said of his team鈥檚 first win. 鈥淲e weren鈥檛 playing awful, there have been several others where we were in the game and things didn鈥檛 go our way.
鈥淭o finally get one, just to get that confidence boost to believe we can get it done, you could see that in the guys. We鈥檝e played decent baseball this year other than the first few games. We鈥檙e hoping to stack some more.鈥�
Encapera lauded Perry, Ray and Lessman for their performances on the eastern Pa. trip.
鈥淐onnor Perry had a great weekend,鈥� Encapera said. 鈥淗e had a hit in every game. He鈥檚 our lead-off guy, he sets the tone. When he gets on base that gets us going and everybody moving. He sets the table for everybody else.
鈥淚 thought Ashton Ray had a very good weekend as well. He had several hits and seven strikeouts in the win. Rem had a number of hits and RBIs for us and had some key hits, and he had nine strikeouts in his win. Obviously the efforts of those two on the mound sparked us.
鈥淲e had other guys play well both those players鈥� really carried us.鈥�
Encapera said his team is healthy going into this weekend.
鈥淲e鈥檙e really fortunate in that we鈥檝e only had a few injuries and our pitching staff has been pretty intact,鈥� Encapera said. 鈥淲e were just trying to balance the pitch count and innings leading up to this point to make sure everybody鈥檚 healthy so they can be available when we get into conference play.鈥�