BEAVER FALLS, Pa. – The Geneva College baseball team used a big offensive day at the plate to defeat Penn State Beaver on Wednesday afternoon, 22-16.  Geneva improved to 13-14 with the win.

Sophomore Nick Miller got his first start of the season for Geneva, and after a scoreless top of the first, the Geneva offense struck for 12 runs.  In fact, Penn State Beaver's starter was unable to record an out before the Lions had to call in a reliever.

Sophomore Michael Twigg had the biggest impact in the first inning as the Golden Tornadoes almost batted around twice in the frame.  Twigg had two RBI-doubles in the inning, including just missing a grand slam in his second at-bat, and he drove in four runs with those doubles.  Sophomore Bradley McGuire drove in three with a single and a sacrifice fly, while freshman Simon Wehr, senior Zack Sackett and sophomore Hank Fedullo each contributed RBIs.

Penn State Beaver scored twice in the second and added two more unearned runs in the third after a Golden Tornado error.  Geneva got one of those runs back when senior Eric Gonzalez led off the bottom of the third with a double and later scored on a sacrifice fly off the bat of freshman Mason Smith.

Neither team scored in the fourth, and then Miller seemed to run out of gas in the fifth.  After picking up the second out of the inning, six straight Lions reached base, and by the time junior Ethan Blair came in to record the final out, Penn State Beaver had pulled within 13-12.

Geneva responded in its half of the fifth with four runs.  After the first batter was retired, Fedullo, Smith and Wehr all reached to load the bases.  Junior Kirk Bearjar walked to drive in one run, sophomore Mason Gump and Twigg followed with RBI-singles, and senior Harrison Burns brought in the final run with a sacrifice fly.

Penn State Beaver kept its offense going, though, scoring twice in the sixth to close within 17-14, but Geneva pushed the margin back out in the bottom of the frame, scoring four more times.  Wehr and Bearjar produced back-to-back RBI-doubles, and an error and a wild pitch brought home the final two runs.

The Lions' first four batters reached base in the top of the seventh on a single and three walks, prompting a move to a bullpen to bring in junior Jake McFarland.  McFarland proved to be exactly what the Golden Tornadoes needed.  He got out of the bases loaded jam by giving up just one run, and he closed out the game with two more hitless innings to seal the victory, 22-16.

McFarland earned his first win of the season, pitching three hitless innings, giving up just one walk while striking out four.

Twigg had a big day offensively, finishing 3-for-5 with two runs and five RBIs.  McGuire added two hits and two RBIs, while Wehr went 2-for-4 with four runs scored and two RBIs.  Smith and senior Zach Lemansky also added two hits apiece, while Lemansky, Gonzalez, Sackett, Bearjar and Smith each scored twice.

Geneva's next up to play a doubleheader with Westminster, with those games possibly getting moved up one day to Friday with rain in the forecast for Saturday.