March 20, 2009 - Geneva College
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March 20, 2009

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March 20, 2009

CONTACT: Van Zanic
Sports Information Director

(724) 847-6886

vgzanic@geneva.edu

OFFENSIVE OUTBURST, STREAK CONTINUES WITH HOME OPENING VICTORY

Beaver Falls, PA - It wasn′t Ft. Pierce, FL, but don′t tell that to the Geneva College baseball team. After a 9-2 start to the season with 11 games in Georgia and Florida, the Golden Tornadoes didn′t miss a beat in their 2009 home opener. Geneva continued its impressive offensive start by blasting Penn State Beaver by the score of 22-4. The win was Geneva′s ninth straight and helped to improve its overall record to 10-2.

Geneva banged out 22 hits and scored in six of its eight offensive innings. The Golden Tornadoes got rolling with three runs in each of the first two innings. A four spot in the fourth and a seven run rally in the fifth put the Golden Tornadoes up 17-0 before the Lions were able to get on the board. While the big story was the Geneva offensive explosion, Derek Sumner picked up his third victory of the season with a solid seven inning outing. Sumner allowed just one earned run in seven innings. He allowed seven hits and struck out eight in the victory.

The Golden Tornadoes got several offensive contributions led by the work of Phil Shallenberger and Joel Gatti who combined for six hits and seven RBI′s. Shallenberger launched a second inning homer to get his day off to a good start. Tadd Eyster, Andy Lubich and Justin McGurgan each had two hits to help the offensive cause. Lucas Zimmerman came off the bench and hit his first home run of the season.

Penn State Beaver will look for some revenge on Saturday as it hosts Geneva in a matinee doubleheader beginning at 1:00 pm. The Golden Tornadoes will travel to Washington & Jefferson on Tuesday before returning home next weekend for a three-game series against Thomas More.
Mar 20, 2009