ALFRED, N.Y. – The Penn State Altoona baseball team came up short in Tuesday afternoon's Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference Tournament Quarterfinal game with Alfred State College, suffering a 17-9 loss at Pioneer Field.

Despite being shorthanded, the fifth-seeded Lions (12-15) produced nine runs on 13 hits and answered several Alfred State scoring rallies to stay within striking distance for much of the day. But the four seed Pioneers (18-21) and their total of 17 runs was too much to overcome, and Alfred State won the decisive game three of the AMCC Tournament Quarterfinal series.

The Pioneers will advance to play top seed La Roche University in an AMCC Tournament semifinal best-of-three series, which opens this Friday, May 14. Penn State Altoona is eliminated from the tournament with today's loss.

Jared Ennis (Richboro, PA/Council Rock South) finished with a game-high four hits, going 4-for-5 with three runs scored and one run batted in. Timothy Richard (Douglassville, PA/Daniel Boone) was 2-for-5 with a double, two runs scored, and two RBI, and Grayson McClain (Mount Union, PA/Mount Union) was also 2-for-5 with a run, an RBI, and a walk.

Catcher Cumming (Altoona, PA/Altoona) hit a double to go along with two runs scored, two RBI, and one walk. Jake Hillard (State College, PA/State College) also had a double and two RBI. Quinten Moslak (Philipsburg, PA/Philipsburg-Osceola) went 1-for-3 with two walks and an RBI.

Adam Wildasin (Hershey, PA/Hershey) started on the mound for the Lions and was saddled with the loss, pitching two innings and yielding six runs while striking out three batters. Sam Homan (Altoona, PA/Bishop Guilfoyle) followed with 2/3 inning out of the bullpen, and Jake Bradish (Latrobe, PA/Greater Latrobe) tossed 1/3 inning.

Bryson Byers (Chambersburg, PA/Chambersburg) followed Bradish, pitching one inning in relief. Cameron Dubbs (Palmyra, PA/Palmyra) added three innings out of the pen, allowing no earned runs and striking out four batters. Austin Miller (Orbisonia, PA/Southern Huntingdon) pitched a scoreless inning to finish things out on the mound for the Lions.

Alfred State opened the game's scoring in the bottom of the first on Josh Laurie's two-run single to right, but Penn State Altoona came back with a run in the top of the second on McClain's RBI single to first.

The Pioneers put together a four-run bottom of the second to increase their lead. Jack Henby's RBI double to left and Sam Dickerson's RBI triple to right-center put the Alfred State lead at 4-1, and an RBI single up the middle from Brody Burdett and RBI double to left-center by Matteo Avallone made it 6-1.

The Lions responded right away again, plating a run in the top of the third on Richard's RBI base hit up the middle.

But the Pioneers answered with another multi-run inning in the bottom half of the third. The frame included RBI singles by Henby and Burdett, and Dickerson picked up another RBI on his grounder that resulted in an error.

Penn State Altoona kept pushing, however, and got three runs across in the top half of the fourth to keep themselves in the game. Ennis' RBI single to left accounted for his team's third run of the day, and Hillard's two-run double to left-center cut the Alfred State lead to 9-5.

Alfred State kept its foot on the gas in the bottom of the fourth, plating four runs to extend its lead to 13-5. The first run of the inning came across when Laurie stole third base, then scored on a throwing error during the play. Later, Henby's two RBI double to left and Dickerson's sacrifice fly to right gave the home team an eight-run lead.

The Pioneers tacked two more runs on to their total in the fifth, when Connor Pingitore and Tim Holler each drew bases-loaded walks to score runs.

After two scoreless innings, Penn State Altoona went back to work in the eighth and brought themselves back to within six runs of the Alfred State lead. Cumming's double to center drove in two runs, and Richard followed with an RBI double to right while Moslak hit an RBI single to right, cutting the Pioneers' lead to 15-9.

But Alfred State got two runs back in the bottom of the eighth, when Burdett scored on an error and Pingitore added an RBI groundout to third.

Notes: Richard and Ennis werer named as Penn State Altoona's representatives on the AMCC All-Tournament team after the game.