Beaver Baseball Sweeps New Kensington on Senior Day

New Brighton, Pa

Evan Pinchot - The Penn State Beaver baseball team hosted the men of Penn State New Kensington for a doubleheader matchup on Beaver's senior day, winning both games for their first doubleheader sweep of the season. 

In game one of Beaver's senior day doubleheader, the team would play one of their most complete games of the year in their winning effort. With Senior Justyn Francona (New Brighton, Pa New Brighton High School) on the mound, Beaver kept New Kensington off the base paths for the majority of the game. Going 7 full innings and allowing just one run while striking out an impressive 9 batters, Francona put on a clinic in what could have been his last start in his college career. On offense, another Senior, Stefan Romaniuk (Alpha, Nj  Notre Dame), would be a sparkplug for Beaver's dominant 9 run performance at the plate. Romaniuk's 2-4 day, including a double and an RBI, would be a big part of Beaver taking home a 9-1 win in game one. 

In game two we saw our third great senior performance of the day, once again from the mound, as Scott Hughes (Aliquippa, Pa / Central Valley) would also pitch in the last game of his college career. Just as Francona did in game one, Hughes would go a full 7 innings in game two, letting up just a single earned run. While errors on defense would lead to 4 unearned runs for Hughes, his performance set up Beaver in a position to win this game and take home their first doubleheader sweep of the season. At the plate, Beaver was able to carry on their momentum from game one, as Hughes himself would lead the offensive charge with a a monster day at the plate, going 2-4 with 3 RBIs with a 2 run home run. Beaver's offense would once again end up outmatching New Kensington in game two, as Beaver would complete their sweep of the day by defeating New Kensington by a final score of 9-5. 

After honoring seniors Stefan Romaniuk, Scott Hughes, and Justyn Francona before the start of play today, Beaver would go on to honor them once again by winning both games of their doubleheader. All three of these seniors would shine in the days games in one way or another, as their efforts helped to improve Beaver's record to 6-19 on the year overall, while pushing their conference record up to 4-19. Beaver will return to action for their final games of the 2021 season on Saturday, April 24, as the team will travel to take on Penn State New Kensington for another doubleheader. Game one is set to start at 12 pm, with game two to follow at 2 pm.