BASEBALL
DOVER, Del. – Penn State Behrend sophomore Chad Zurat of Clearfield was selected third-team relief pitcher on the D3baseball.com All-Mid-Atlantic Region Team late last week and then was given his first start of the season in the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference South Region Tournament championship game against Wesley (Del.) Sunday afternoon.
The hard-throwing right-hander, who had bailed out teammates many times in his 19 relief appearances, struggled against the host and No. 1-seeded Wolverines, but the third-seeded Lions got him off the hook with seven runs in the sixth inning and went on to claim the title with a 13-10 victory at Bob Reed Field.
Zurat (2-2) pitched 2-1/3 innings and couldn’t protect 2-0 and 3-2 leads, giving up six hits and five runs, four earned, while walking three.
In his previous 35-1/3 innings, he had surrendered only 17 hits and four runs, all earned.
Zurat failed to register a strikeout, and the only other time that occurred was when he needed to record just one out against Pitt-Greensburg.
More typical of his stints were 2-1/3 innings of scoreless, one-hit, three-strikeout relief in Penn State Behrend’s 8-7 win over visiting Waynesburg, the No. 6 seed, in the ECAC-South first round Wednesday.
Zurat, one of two pitchers named to the All-Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference second team, is one of 44 players on the all-region squad selected by the D3baseball.com staff and contributors and sports information directors.
Pitt-Bradford second baseman Derek Smith was the only other AMCC player to be selected. The conference’s Player of the Year is on the second team.
In all, 713 players in eight regions throughout the country were nominated by their schools.
Penn State Behrend’s third ECAC title capped a 29-15-1 season that included a second-place finish at 12-3-1 in the AMCC regular season. The Lions lost in the elimination bracket final of the conference championship tourney.
Final conference statistics show Zurat second in saves (7), appearances (20), games in relief (19) and games finished (14) and eighth in strikeouts (48).
His 11.47 strikeouts per nine innings rank among the top 10 in NCAA Division III.
Zurat, who tied the Penn State Behrend record for saves in a season, finished with an outstanding 48-18 strikeout-to-walk ratio and an earned run average of 1.91.
A shoulder injury prevented junior Mike Moyer of Clearfield from pitching for Penn State Behrend in the AMCC and ECAC tournaments, cutting short a solid season that included five wins without a defeat.
The right-handed starter wound up in many of the AMCC’s Top 10 for hurlers with a minimum of one inning per number of games played by their teams.
Moyer second in fewest runs allowed (22), third in fewest walks allowed (10), tied for third in fewest earned runs allowed (17), fourth in earned run average (3.21), fifth in wins, tied for eighth in starts (9), and tied for ninth in hits fewest allowed (52).
Also, he was one of five AMCC pitchers who didn’t give up a home run and one of six who didn’t allow a triple.
Moyer pitched 47-2/3 innings in 10 appearances and had two complete games.
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ALTOONA – Derek Danver of Clearfield ended his freshman season for Penn State Altoona ranking seventh in runs batted in with 37 and 15th in batting average at .348 in the final Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference statistics.
The infielder/designated hitter was 47-for-135 with nine doubles and one home run.
Danver led the Lions (17-22) in RBIs, was third in hits and doubles and tied for third in runs scored with 26.
He drew five walks and was hit by a pitch five times.
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MEN’S GYMNASTICS
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -Penn State still rings standout Scott Rosenthal of Clearfield qualified for the 2012 Visa Championships in St. Louis June 7-10 with a first-place effort at the United States Men’s Qualifier at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., earlier this month.
The two-time All-American received a 15.150 score from the judges to beat out national team member and two-time NCAA rings champion Brandon Wynn, an Ohio State graduate.
Rosenthal was one of five key members of the very successful 2012 Nittany Lion team who earned the opportunity to join the country’s top gymnasts and compete not only for national titles and berths on the U.S. National Team but also for the chance to move on to the 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials set for June 28-July 1.
Fellow Big Ten Conference champion Craig Hernandez tied national team member John Orozco for first place on the pommel horse with a 15.150 and also placed eighth in floor exercise with a 14.350.
Miguel Pineda was fourth on the rings with a 14.650, eighth on the parallel bars and 14th on the pommel horse.
Mackenzie Dow finished seventh in floor exercise, ninth on the pommel horse and high bar, 11th in the vault and 21st on the parallel bars.
Matthew Fellemen claimed eighth place in the all-around with an 83.450, his best finish a 10th on the high bar.