Over the weekend, Bucknell Baseball played five games. The Bison had two double headers against Army and Holy Cross and one game against Penn State. 

Bucknell traveled to West Point, N.Y. on Sunday, April 2 to play two games against Army. The overall record was split, as Army won the first game 7-0 and Bucknell clinched the second game 11-7. 

Before their game against Army, Bucknell was on a seven-game winning streak. Unfortunately, in the first match-up, Bucknell was unable to score a run. However, two of Bucknell’s three hits were doubles off the bats of Chris Klein ’23 and Jake Wortman ’23. During this game, Chris DiFiore ’23 and Hadley Maxwell ’26 pitched for the Bison. 

Heading into the second game that day against Army, the Bison were motivated to come back against their opponent. Grant Voytovich ’24 connected four out of five pitches he was thrown and hit his fourth home run of the season. Tyler Dunn ’25 went three for five and Sean Keys ’25, Billy Kender ’25 and Kyle Lyons ’23 all had two hits. 

In this second game, Coach Scott Heather shuffled his lineup in the middle section and the trio of Keys, Dunn and Voytovich went nine for 14 with five RBIs and eight runs scored. 

After Keys earned a walk, Dunn smashed a home run over the right wall, making the score 3-0. Later in the fourth, the Bison picked up two more runs. 

In the sixth inning, Kender hit a two-run double and scored on another hit by Klein to make the score 8-4. 

Finally, in the seventh, Voytovich hit a two-run shot over the center wall to widen the score 10-4, and Keys followed up with one more homer in the ninth, making it his sixth homer of the season. After the final inning of play for both teams, the score ended 11-7, favoring Bucknell.

The next day, on Monday, April 4, the Bison made their way up to Worcester, Mass where they played two games against Holy Cross. Unfortunately for Bucknell, they were defeated in both games 7-4 and 12-8. 

Throughout the first four innings, the Bison were scoreless and down 5-0. However, at the start of the fifth inning, Kender hit a double and got the ball rolling for the Bison. Wortman was able to drive Kender home with his single hit. After, Wortman scored off of a long ball hit into centerfield by Lyons. Finally, Anthony Sherwin’s ’24 infield hit made it a 5-3 game. 

At the top of the sixth inning, the Bison left the bases loaded and Holy Cross took advantage and added two big runs. Later, Voytovich singled home a run in the seventh and final inning to gain one more point for the Bison. 

After the first game ended, Bucknell regrouped before taking on Holy Cross again. Once the match began, Holy Cross wasted no time before grabbing the lead. The Crusaders gained a 10-0 lead after back-to-back three-run innings in the fifth and sixth. 

The Bison finally joined the scoring with five runs in the seventh inning and three more in the eighth. Lyons, Kender, Keys and Klein all had two hits each for the Bison and totaled 14 hits overall in the game. 

After a long two days on the road, Bucknell traveled back to Pennsylvania. Only an hour and 15 minute drive from campus, the Bison drove to Penn State. Luckily, Bucknell turned their luck around from the previous match-up and defeated Penn State 17-14. This game was by far the most wild game of the season. 

Throughout the game, Voytovich went four for six at bat and earned his second-inning grand slam that helped the Bison take an early 7-0 lead. 

Keys also drove in six runs with a three for five night along with Sherwin and Jacob Corson ’24, adding three hits and scoring four runs each. 

With Bucknell’s gaping lead, Penn State chipped away at the early deficit. However, the Bison held onto the lead, and after a four-run eighth inning were up 13-9. 

Unfortunately, disaster struck at the bottom of the eighth inning when Penn State took advantage of two errors. Penn State hit four times, stole three bases and scored six runs. Suddenly, the Nittany Lions had a 14-13 lead, their first of the night.

Voytovich tied the game with an RBI single at the top of the ninth with Keys following with a three-run home run to send the team to a crazy victory. 

Overall, the Bison finished the game with 17 hits in the game, and scored their most runs ever against Penn State in a series that dates back to 1886. Bucknell used five pitchers in the game, while Penn State used eight. 

This Saturday, April 8, Bucknell will travel to Easton, Pa. to play a three-game series at Lafayette. This match-up will conclude the Bison’s eight-game road trip.