MIDDLETOWN, Pa. – Behind a sterling outing from Christian Lubic on the mound and plenty of offense, No. 23 Penn State Harrisburg rolled to a convincing 20-0 non-conference shutout victory over Lebanon Valley on Wednesday afternoon, April 17.

Lubic turned in his best start of the season, throwing seven scoreless innings, allowing just three hits, and tallying nine strikeouts to earn the win. Brendan Henn led the way at the plate, finishing a double shy of the cycle with a home run, a triple, four RBI, and three runs scored. Reigning United East Volt Division Player of the Week Carlos Irizarry doubled, drove in three runs, and scored two more.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Henn set the tone by leading off the bottom of the first with a solo blast over the fence in left field before Dallas Hite doubled the advantage with an RBI single to left that drove in Irizarry and made it 2-0 Penn State Harrisburg (23-7) after one.

Lubic followed it up with back-to-back 1-2-3 innings that included four strikeouts and his offense rewarded him with a two-out rally in the bottom of the third that included a bases-loaded walk from Braeden Piotrowski and Henn's bases-clearing, three-RBI triple. Drew Sassaman kept the scoring going with an infield single that plated Henn to make it 7-0 through three.

The Flying Dutchmen (15-14) recorded their first hits of the contest in the fourth but a pretty sliding play by Blaine Waltimyer to glove a ball in foul territory kept LVC off the board. The Lions added another in the bottom half when Drew Bechtold singled to right center and drove in Hite after the latter swiped a pair of bags following an infield single.

Lubic retired Lebanon Valley in order in the top of the fifth and sixth frames, while the home team tacked on two more runs in the fifth on a Kevin Lehner RBI single before putting together a monstrous eight-run sixth stanza that included a bases-clearing double from Irizarry, an RBI single from Coy Schwanger, and a two-RBI double from Demetre Koutras III.

A pair of bases-loaded walks drove in two more in the bottom of the seventh to put the exclamation point on the scoring and Riley Blatt and Roberto Barron each threw a scoreless inning of relief to seal the decisive win.

NOTABLES

- Penn State Harrisburg set the single-game program record for walks with 16 on the day.

- The team's 20 runs stand as the highest single-game run total of the season.

- Lubic improved to 3-0 after throwing seven scoreless innings, racking up nine strikeouts, and allowing just three hits.

- Henn finished 3-for-4 with a home run, a triple, a walk, four RBI, and three runs scored.

- Irizarry was 2-for-4 with a double, three RBI, and two runs scored.

- Hite and Lucas Floyd also had multi-hit games.

- Piotrowski walked three times and scored a pair of runs.

WHO'S NEXT?

The Lions return to conference play when they host United East foe Penn State Abington for the first game of a weekend series on Friday afternoon.

STAY CONNECTED 

Fans can keep up with Penn State Harrisburg Athletics all season long on Instagram, Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Threads, and Youtube using the handle @pshbgathletics.