READING, Pa. (March 16, 2011) – J.R. Seader (Piscataway, NJ/Piscataway/ Maryland-Baltimore County) pitched five innings of shutout, one-hit baseball and freshman Kyle Stoudt (Mertztown, PA/Brandywine Heights) hit his first collegiate home run as the Kutztown University baseball team took down Penn State Berks, 8-3, Wednesday afternoon at Hintz Athletic Field. (BOXSCORE) (PHOTO GALLERY)
The Golden Bears (10-4) entered Wednesday's game ranked 22nd in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) national top 25 poll. KU also ranks second in the NCBWA Atlantic Region top 10 poll.
In his second start of the year for Kutztown, Seader was determined to get to work early and prove he deserved a spot in this year's starting rotation. Needless to say, if there were any doubters of what Seader could bring to the table for KU, they were quickly silenced after the outing he turned in against the Nittany Lions.
After letting up a leadoff single to Aaron Wilkins, Seader sat down 13 of his next 15 batters, four of which coming by strikeout. Wilkins' single was the only hit for PSU Berks through the first five innings as Seader earned his first win of the season. He also lowered his ERA to 4.05.
“The biggest thing for me coming into today was throwing strikes, getting ahead of hitters and putting them away once I got ahead of them,” said Seader. “I know I made a bad pitch to the first batter in the first inning, but after that I was able to work ahead and get batters out. The biggest thing is trying to get the team a win and I'm glad I could help the team do that today. That's what I'm out here trying to do.”
The best asset for any pitcher is getting run support from its supporting cast, and Seader had plenty of that on Wednesday. KU scored three runs in the second inning off RBI singles from Anthony Knight (Wayne, PA/Radnor), Brad Stoudt (Topton, PA/Brandywine Heights) and Cody Montz (Schuylkill Haven, PA/Schuylkill Haven). All three are hitting above .300 this year with Montz leading all active hitters in batting average at .462.
Mike Dugan (Ocean City, N.J./Ocean City) and Shayne Houck (Boyertown, PA/Boyertown) each had their eighth multi-hit game of the season and were the only two KU hitters with multi-hit games on Wednesday. Houck is batting .418 and leads the team with 23 hits. Dugan is second on the team in hits with 19 while batting .333.
KU would solidify its lead in the top half of the sixth as Kyle Stoudt (Mertztown, PA/Brandywine Heights) would come to the plate with a prime opportunity to give Kutztown a couple of insurance runs with Brad Stoudt (Topton, PA/Brandywine Heights) and Montz on base. Kyle Stoudt (Mertztown, PA/Brandywine Heights) connected on an inside pitch, sending it over the right field wall giving KU a 6-0 lead. Kyle Stoudt (Mertztown, PA/Brandywine Heights) is batting .375 in his first 11 games and earned his team-leading 16 RBI in the process. He is now one of four Golden Bears with a home run this season.
“This is what we expect out of our guys,” said head baseball coach Chris Blum. “We knew Penn State was going to be a better team than they've been in the past 5-10 years. We wanted to try and get after them early and build a lead, and that's what we did today. Our youngsters are really doing well for us right now.”
Wilkins led the Nittany Lions as he went 2-for-3 with an RBI. Kevin Heilman got the loss for PSU Berks in his three innings of work.
Kutztown now moves into conference-play as it goes up against East Stroudsburg in a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) matchup on Friday, March 18 beginning at 1:00 p.m.
--KU--
