LOCK HAVEN, Pa. – The Lock Haven University baseball team (4-12, 4-12 PSACE) took game one, 7-0, from Mansfield (6-14, 5-11 PSACE) but dropped the final game, 8-3, to split a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) East division doubleheader on Saturday afternoon at Watkins Field.
 
Game 1: W, 7-0
The Bald Eagle bats came to life early in the opening game and exploded for a seven run second inning. Mike O'Halloran (Monmouth Beach, N.J./Shore Regional(Ocean CC)) started the scoring when he drove in Blaise Zeiders (Selinsgrove, Pa./Selinsgrove) on a line drive triple to right center field. Garrett Nepert (Preston, Md./ Chesepeake County CC) went back-to-back with Zeiders lacing a triple of his own and drove in O'Halloran to push the Bald Eagle lead to 2-0. Gavin Troutman (Oley Valley, Pa./Catholic Oley Valley) notched an RBI single to drive in Nepert and scored on a wild pitch later in the inning to stretch the lead to 4-0. Jake Mastillo (Moscow, Pa./North Pocono) rounded off the scoring when he crushed a line drive three run homerun to left field to cap the seven-run inning. The second inning burst proved to be the difference in the game and the Bald Eagles rolled to the 7-0 win.

Kyler Mellott (Bellefonte, Pa./ Bellefonte (Clarion)) delivered a gem on the mound for The Haven pitching a complete game shutout and allowing just four hits across his seven innings. The outing marks the first complete game shutout for the Bald Eagles since the season finale in 2019 when they notched a 1-0 win over rival Millersville. Mellot struck out five Mountie batters without walking a batter to earn his first win as a Bald Eagle.

Game 2: L, 8-3
LHU jumped out to another early lead in the second game of the day as Troutman and Reagan Lawlor (McMurray, Pa./Peters Township) both tallied RBI singles in the bottom half of the second inning for the Bald Eagles. The Mounties, however, rallied in the fourth and fifth innings scoring one and twice, respectively, to grab a 3-2 lead in the fifth inning. LHU responded in their half of the fifth inning and tied the game at 3-3 on a Joe Shannon (Warminster, Pa./ William Tennent (Mercer CC)) RBI single which drove in Justin Lichtenwalner (Landisville, Pa./Hempfield). The score line did not hold for long, however, as Mansfield put up five more runs in the sixth inning to build an 8-3 lead, a score line which held until the final.

David Keller (Oreland, Pa./Christopher Dock Mennonite) started on the mound for The Haven and struck out nine batters in his 4 and 2/3 innings of work. He walked just one batter and allowed three earned runs.

Lawlor led the Bald Eagles with two hits in both games and one RBI in the series. A trio of Bald Eagles, Mastillo, Porter and Troutman all notched three hits on the day. Mastillo drove in three runs on his home run in the first game, while Troutman tallied an RBI in both games.
 
Next Up:
LHU takes the diamond next Friday when they host Shepherd in the first two games of a weekend series. First pitch on those games is slated for 12:00 and 2:30 p.m.