ALTOONA, Pa. - Freshman Jim Baum (Shermansdale, PA/West Perry) had five hits including his first collegiate home run and scored six runs to help the Penn State Altoona baseball team to a doubleheader split Friday afternoon at the Stewart Athletic Field.  The Lions won the opener 16-9, but UPG rallied late in game two for an 11-9 victory.

In the opener, Cord Heine (Malvern, PA/Mercersburg) hit a two-run single in the first inning as the Lions bolted to a 3-0 lead.  After Greensburg cut the deficit to 3-2, Altoona again pushed across three runs in the third in large part thanks to two crucial Bobcat errors.

Both Altoona and UPG scored four runs in the fourth inning, but that was all the offensive output the Bobcats would get as Lion reliever Tom Rafetto (Malvern, PA/Great Valley) pitched the final 3 1/3 innings, scattering two hits and allowing no runs to earn the win.

Penn State Altoona, which was the visiting team in both games, scored three runs in the fifth, one in the sixth, and two in the seventh.  Heine, who blasted his seventh home run of the year, and Grady Luzier (Forest, PA/West Branch) had three hits apiece.

Heine finished his monster game with six RBI and also scored twice.  Baum and Luzier crossed home plate four times each for the Lions, which had 14 total hits and got eight unearned runs via five Greensburg errors.

Game two saw the Bobcats claw back from a 9-6 deficit and eventually tie things at 9-9 with a three-run fifth inning.  Altoona went scoreless in the sixth, and Greensburg got the game-winning hit when Shane Molyneaux roped a one-out, two-run double down the right field line.

Altoona got the lead runner on base in the seventh, but a subsequent double play and strikeout ended the squad's seven-game winning streak and dropped its record to 11-7 overall and 3-1 in the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference.

Offensively, the Lions got three runs in the third and had five of their 13 hits during a six-run fourth inning.  Baum and Jimmy Byers (Chambersburg, PA/Chambersburg) each cracked three hits, while Luzier and Heine added two apiece.

Greensburg jumped out to a 6-0 lead and got six unearned runs off Altoona starter Mike Myers (Boiling Springs, PA/Boiling Springs), who went 4 2/3 innings and got a no-decision.

Penn State Altoona returns to action tomorrow for a 1:00 PM AMCC doubleheader at Hilbert College.