Penn State York baseball carries momentum into PSUAC tournament
Thomas KendzioraPenn State York baseball will return to the Pennsylvania State University Athletic Conference tournament with plenty of momentum.
The Nittany Lions capped off a 25-8 regular season with a road doubleheader sweep of Penn State Wilkes-Barre on Tuesday afternoon. The shutout wins of 13-0 and 5-0 brought York’s PSUAC record to 15-5, tied for second place in the East Division with Penn State Brandywine.
Head coach Todd Meckley’s team will officially be the East’s No. 2 seed in the PSUAC tournament, thanks to a 3-1 series victory over PSU Brandywine last weekend. Those two teams, however, were already in line to play a single-elimination game Saturday at Blue Mountain High School, the home field of PSUAC East champion Penn State Schuylkill (28-12, 16-4).
The winner of Saturday’s play-in game will battle PSU Schuylkill on Sunday, setting up seeding for the PSUAC’s championship weekend at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park in State College. The double-elimination tournament will crown its champion Monday, May 6.
PSY pulled off an upset of PSU Brandywine last year to reach the final day, although the Lions didn’t get either of the two wins they needed against Penn State DuBois for the championship. Penn State York had made the conference tournament just once prior to 2022; the program picked up its first three PSUAC playoff wins last year.
DuBois won the West Division with a 19-1 league record; the defending conference and national champions entered this week 29-8 overall. PSU Mont Alto (26-14, 14-6) and PSU Greater Allegheny (20-13, 12-8) will round out the tournament field. Those three teams have combined to win 11 of the last 12 PSUAC titles.
Penn State York’s 2024 season began with a February loss at Lancaster Bible College and a 4-2 week in Myrtle Beach at the start of March. The end of that trip marked the beginning of a 13-game winning streak that was snapped in PSY’s very last game of the month. The Lions lost three straight against PSU Schuylkill at the start of April but took that series finale to start a 10-1 stretch, which culminated Tuesday.
PSY led 12-0 through three innings in Tuesday’s first game at Wilkes-Barre before winning in five frames. Ryan Schubert (Kennard-Dale) finished 3 for 3 with two RBIs, while Brian Hauer and Shane Hulbert drove in three runs apiece. Four pitchers combined to throw a four-hit shutout in Game 2, which went the full seven innings. York’s bats swung that contest with a three-run fourth.
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Meckley’s team beat Brandywine 9-6 and 4-1 on the road last Thursday before losing 17-5 and winning 5-1 in Friday’s doubleheader at WellSpan Park, which is PSY’s home through the 2026 season. Saturday’s PSUAC elimination game is set for an 11 a.m. first pitch.
It’s possible PSY’s season could continue in the USCAA’s Small College World Series, which will take place May 12-16 in DuBois after a May 7 selection show. York, which entered this week at No. 8 in the USCAA coaches’ rankings, would clinch an automatic berth with a PSUAC title.
YORK COLLEGE NOTES
Singular achievement: Elsa Oestermarker stands alone in the history books for York College women’s tennis. The senior secured her 42nd career singles victory on Monday at McDaniel, passing Katie Wagner for the program record. Oestermarker previously set the team record for doubles wins in October at the beginning of the two-semester season.
The Imperial Beach, California, native won her singles match 6-1, 6-0 and teamed with Kennard-Dale’s Bri Serruto for an 8-2 victory at first doubles in York’s 9-0 team triumph Monday. Oestermarker now holds a 42-18 career record in singles and a 44-17 mark in doubles. She has played in the No. 1 singles and doubles spots for her entire four-year career.
The Spartans improved to 4-9 with Monday’s win. They will close their MAC Commonwealth schedule with Wednesday’s visit to Stevenson and Saturday’s home match against Hood. The MACC tournaments will be staged in York next week.
More Spartan standouts: Will Harnick, who became York College men’s lacrosse’s all-time leading scorer earlier this month, was named MACC Player of the Week on Monday after tallying seven goals and five assists in the Spartans’ dominant wins over Stevenson and Widener. The victories moved York to 8-7 overall and 5-0 in the league with two regular-season games remaining.
Sarah Christensen, meanwhile, earned her third straight MACC Defensive Player of the Week honor for the women’s lacrosse team on Monday. The graduate student led the Spartans (9-6, 5-0) with 15 draw controls and four caused turnovers in wins over Stevenson and Widener, the former of which pushed York into first place.
York College softball snapped a seven-game losing streak with an offensive explosion, routing Hood 16-3 (five innings) to split a Saturday doubleheader. Emma Wade, Gretchen Barstad, Daphney Adams and Rylee Dreyer all had three hits, with Wade and Barstad notching four RBIs apiece. The Spartans are now 18-13 (7-4 MACC). The baseball team entered Tuesday on a seven-game slide of its own, dropping its record to 17-15 (9-9).
New beginnings: York College announced Nate Gibboney as the eighth men’s soccer coach in its 56-year history last Friday. Gibboney previously spent 11 years at Lycoming College in Williamsport, where he went 128-49-31 and won three MAC Commonwealth titles before the Warriors left for the Landmark Conference.
The Huntingdon native and former Susquehanna University captain served as an assistant at Westminster College, Vassar College and NCAA Division I Lafayette before taking over at Lycoming. Now he’ll take over a program that went 65-62-18 in eight seasons under Evan Scheffey, including 6-7-3 last fall.
"We were blown away by our candidate pool," said Paul Saikia, York College’s Assistant Dean for Athletics and Recreation. "I see it as a testament to the soccer community's view of our program and its potential. Ultimately, coach Gibboney distinguished himself. He comes to us with a complete grasp of our recruiting landscape, experience within our conference, a proven track record of success — both on and off the field — and a vision of excellence.”
