KUTZTOWN, Pa. (March 25, 2011) – The Kutztown University baseball team used a 10-run third inning to propel it to a 12-1 victory in its second game against Shippensburg University Friday afternoon in a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Eastern Division matchup at North Campus Field. KU dropped the first game, 6-4. (GAME 1 BOXSCORE) (GAME 2 BOXSCORE)
Fans in attendance at Friday's game were bundled up in their hats and heavy winter jackets due to the extremely cold and windy weather in the Lehigh Valley. Some would say it even had the similarities of one of KU's historic November football games this past fall.
After dropping a tough game in the opener, the Golden Bears (12-8 overall, 2-4 PSAC East) responded by scoring two runs in the first inning off a Matt Albaugh (Hatfield, PA/North Penn) RBI single. Albaugh had a career game in Friday's nightcap, having a career high in hits while going a perfect 3-for-3 at the plate in his sixth multi-hit game of the season. He also hit his first home run of the season in game one. He admitted to have been struggling as of late, but Friday's games left only a sense of promise and confidence for the young sophomore for the remainder of this weekend's series.
“Today was a great confidence boost for me,” said Albaugh. “I struggled a bit last week against ESU so I've been working on a lot of extra stuff during practice this week and it feels great to have it pay off. It was a tough first game for us today and we caught some unlucky breaks. We wanted to come out in the second game with more intensity, and everyone answered the call and played great for us.”
KU continued its charge forward by unleashing the hounds in the third inning, putting up 10 runs off nine hits. For a while it seemed that every time KU was able to make contact, the ball would find a hole in the Raider defense and keep its dominant inning alive. Kutztown sent 13 batters to the plate in the third and had three players get two hits in the inning.
James Quigley (Bensalem, PA/Bensalem) had a pair of singles including an RBI single to center field, extending his hitting streak to four games. Quigley is now batting .338 this season and leads the team with nine multi-hit games, along with fellow senior Mike Dugan (Ocean City, N.J./Ocean City).
Albaugh and Kyle Stoudt (Mertztown, PA/Brandywine Heights) also had two hits apiece in the third. Stoudt proved he could pull the ball with a two-RBI single through the right side, and showed his power by legging out a two-RBI triple to left center field.
This was Stoudt's eighth multi-hit game of the season and team-leading fifth multi-RBI game. In just his freshman season, Stoudt is leading the team in batting average (.415), on base pct. (.480), hits (27), and RBI's (21). It hasn't taken long for Stoudt to show head baseball coach Chris Blum what he can bring to the KU program and help the team win right away.
“Freshmen that can come in and hit like he's hitting right now doesn't happen very often,” said Blum. “He's adding an ingredient to this team that we weren't necessary counting on at the beginning of the season, and obviously it's a huge asset for us when he's hitting the way he is.”
Trevor Rosenberg (Sweetwater, N.J./Oakcrest/George Mason) earned the win for Kutztown. He only needed to throw four innings with the overwhelming lead, and struck out five batters while allowing just three hits. This was Rosenberg's first win of the season and is currently second on the team in innings pitched (19.2) and third in strikeouts (17).
In the first game of the afternoon, KU scored all four of their runs in the third inning. Along with Albaugh, Shayne Houck (Boyertown, PA/Boyertown) hit a two run homer in the third as the Golden Bears took a 4-3 lead into the fourth inning. This was Houck's third homer of the season and increased his team-leading slugging percentage to .625.
Todd Rubendall (Collegeville, PA/Methacton) went 2-for-4 in each of Friday's games. He also knocked in a run in KU's monumental third inning. Rubendall is batting .370 this season, good for third on the team and has 11 RBIs on the season.
Shippensburg (11-13, 4-2) scored three more runs in the game as freshman Shawn Patterson shut down KU and earned the three-inning save. Earning the win for the Raiders was Tom Bush who struck out four batters and allowed four runs in four innings of work.
“After not doing some of the little things right in the first game, we came out in the second game and really opened things up by swinging the bats,” said Blum. “We got a couple breaks go our way and hopefully that's the breakthrough we needed. If we come out tomorrow and swing the bats and are willing to hit the ball the other way against some good pitching, I think we got a great shot to take two tomorrow.”
Kutztown concludes its series with Shippensburg tomorrow in a doubleheader at Fairchild Field set to begin at 1:00 p.m. Junior Trent Mertz (Kutztown, PA/Kutztown) is set to make the start for KU in the opening game.
--KU--
