The Orange and Blue baseball team won their first two games of the weekend at home in Lewisburg. They achieved two Patriot League game wins against Army on Saturday, winning 7-3 and 5-3. They improved their record to 5-1 in Patriot League play, moving to first place in the standings. 

In the first game of the weekend, the Bison won 7-3. The Orange and Blue went up 2-0 in the first inning, with Chris Cannizzaro ’22 and Jacob Corson ’24 getting singles. Mason Kelly ’23 was able to get a hit, driving Cannizzaro home. Army had two runs in the second, tying the game 2-2. 

The Orange and Blue had a terrific sixth inning, scoring five runs from previously being down 3-2. Kyle Lyons ’23 had a two-RBI triple, contributing to this comeback inning. 

Preseason Player of the Year Cannizzaro also contributed greatly in this inning, having an RBI double. Pitchers Will Greer ’22 and Andrew Funovits ’22 had great days on the mound, with Greer moving to 3-0 in the season. 

Lyons was the all star of the day, going 3-3 at the plate, alongside Cannizzaro adding two hits and scoring two runs. 

In the second game of the day, the Bison beat Army 5-3. Kendall Pierson ’22 had three hits, alongside excellent pitching by Tyler O’Neill ’25. 

The Orange and Blue started the game off strong, scoring the first five runs in the first three innings. Corson contributed by tripling down the right field line, bringing Cannizzaro home to start the game. 

Pierson had a fantastic day, scoring an in-the-park home run to bring Brendan Lowrey ’22 and Tyler Dunn ’25 home to contribute to the 5-0 lead. 

Lowrey spoke on the team’s success explaining “we played well all weekend. We emphasize good pitching and clean defense and that’s what really allowed us to win. Offensively, we know that we are dangerous and we showed that in all four games. When pitching, defense, and offense are clicking like this past weekend, we are hard to beat.”

O’Neill had a fantastic debut on Depew, only allowing one hit in the first six innings. Pierson led the day for the Bison, going 3 for 4 at the plate. 

The Bison split the series with Holy Cross on their second day of play of the weekend, winning 6-1 and losing to 7-6. 

With these two games, the Orange and Blue go to an overall record of 6-2 in Patriot League play. In the first game on Sunday, the Bison took a 3-0 lead. Corson loaded the bases for the Bison, and Dunn cleared them to score the first three runs of the game. 

Pitcher Austin Odell ’22 started for the Bison, only allowing one run to come in. Lowrey had the first hit in the sixth inning, contributing to the Bison scoring two runs. The Bison had three singles in this inning from Lyons, Anthony Sherwin ’24, and Grant Voytovich ’24. The Bison had eight hits throughout the game, contributing to their 6-1 win over Holy Cross. 

In the Bison’s second game of the day, they lost to Holy Cross 7-6. The Orange and Blue went down 7-1 early in the game, but the Bison cut the lead 7-4 in the seventh. Jake Wortman ’23, Kelly and Sherwin each singled in the eighth, making the score 7-6. 

Wortman talks about the weekend, “We had a lot of great team wins this weekend. Coming back late in the game against Army really fueled us for the rest of the weekend. We are really looking forward to the rest of our Patriot League play in the upcoming weeks.”

The Bison scored again in the ninth, but ultimately could not take the lead from the Crusaders. 

The Orange and Blue look forward to continuing successful Patriot League play against Lafayette and Lehigh this coming weekend.