York College baseball starts strong with series win over reigning NCAA champion Lynchburg

The NCAA spring sports seasons are all underway, and the York College baseball team has quickly made a major statement.

The Spartans opened their 2024 campaign by taking two of three road games against reigning NCAA Division III national champion Lynchburg (Va.) over the weekend. York claimed an 11-6 victory last Saturday, then split a Sunday doubleheader by following a 6-3 loss with an 8-3 triumph that included a six-run top of the ninth inning.

Sophomore second baseman Lucas Prendergast was named the school’s Spartan Athlete of the Week on Monday after going 6 for 13 (.462) with three extra-base hits and four RBIs over the weekend. Senior closer Ethan Kennedy earned MAC Commonwealth Pitcher of the Week honors after locking down both Spartan victories and allowing no runs on one hit across three innings of work.

York College (2-1) trailed 5-2 after five innings on Saturday but rallied for three runs in the sixth, three in the seventh and three in the ninth to secure the season-opening win. The Spartans had another three-run sixth after falling behind 4-0 in Sunday’s Game 1 but couldn’t add on. Lynchburg took a 3-2 lead into the final frame of Game 3, but with the bases loaded and two outs, freshman catcher Matthew Wade took a 1-2 pitch off the wall in center field to clear the bases. Luke Moser followed with a two-run homer, and the Spartans added another run for good measure.

Lynchburg was 22-1 at home in 2023. The Spartans surpassed that visiting win total by themselves.

York was slated to host its home opener on Tuesday against Franklin & Marshall, but the game was postponed due to rain and no makeup date has been announced. The Spartans will visit Rutgers-Camden on Thursday; they have a three-game set scheduled against St. Mary’s (Md.) this weekend, but both Saturday’s road doubleheader and Sunday’s home game could also be impacted by weather.

Head coach Mike Scappa’s 13th season had plenty of promise even before opening weekend. The Spartans, who went 20-20 overall (14-10 MACC) last year, returned six members of their starting lineup and seven impact pitchers from 2023. Kennedy and center fielder Robby Elzinga (Northeastern) were both all-conference first team selections a year ago. York was picked to finish third in the eight-team Commonwealth.

Elzinga was 5 for 13 (.385) at Lynchburg, while junior Chris Betler joined Prendergast at 6 for 13.

The two-month sprint of a season includes York’s conference opener on March 15 at Albright, with a Saturday doubleheader at home wrapping the first of seven MACC series. The Spartans will close their regular season April 30 against Susquehanna and begin the conference tournament that weekend. An NCAA Tournament appearance would be York’s first since 2021 and its second since 2010.

MORE SPARTAN STANDOUTS

York College women’s lacrosse goalie Bella Garabo won MACC Defensive Player of the Week honors six straight times to close last season, and she picked right up where she left off to begin 2024. The graduate student made 13 and 10 saves in the Spartans’ two games last week, both close losses to fellow top-10 teams (14-10 vs. Franklin & Marshall last Wednesday, 11-10 in OT at William Smith on Saturday).

The men’s lacrosse team fell 11-10 to No. 2 RIT on Saturday, dropping to 2-2 this season. Grad student Jack Grayson led the Spartans with three goals in the loss. Top-ranked Salisbury is slated to visit No. 10 York this Saturday.

York College softball went 3-2 during its season-opening California swing. The Spartans opened 2024 with a 5-1 win at Whittier last Tuesday, suffered a doubleheader sweep at Redlands and took two from La Verne. Emma Wade, Daphney Adams and Gretchen Barstad all homered and finished the swing with an OPS above 1.200. Krysten Coppage led the pitching staff with a 2-1 record and 3.50 ERA in her three starts.

Senior Dillsburg native Andrew Mott will represent the Spartan men’s track and field team at NCAA Indoor Nationals after winning the shot put at the AARTFC Indoor Championships last weekend. His throw of 16.89 meters at the event extended his own school record and is tied for 10th-best in D-III this season. A total of six Spartans (five men, one woman) competed at regionals.

The men’s wrestling season came to an end Friday on the first day of NCAA Southeast Regionals, as no Spartans advanced to placement bouts. The women’s program, meanwhile, will be represented by freshman Maura White at this weekend’s nationals in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Kai Cipalla was the lone York men’s basketball honoree on the MAC All-Commonwealth team, as the junior forward earned first-team recognition after averaging 20.4 points and 7.8 rebounds per game. He led the league in both scoring and field goal percentage. Cipalla is set to lead a veteran squad in 2024-25, as the Spartans are slated to return five of their top six scorers.

END OF THE ROAD

The 2023-24 season has come to a close for York-Adams League products in Division III basketball. A handful of local standouts competed in the opening weekend of the NCAA D-III men’s and women’s tournaments, but none advanced to the final 16 in their respective brackets.

Messiah’s Morgan Adams (New Oxford) and Christopher Newport’s Katy Rader (York Catholic) came the closest to extending their seasons, as both their teams reached the second round of the women’s bracket. The Widener men’s team, which features Central York graduate Ethan Dodson, was also ousted in the Round of 32. The men’s squad from hood (which includes Northeastern’s Karron Mallory) and the Chatham women’s team (with Bermudian Springs’ Hannah Chenault and Skyler West and Littlestown’s Celi Portillo) went down in the first round.

Adams, a MAC Commonwealth first-team selection, scored her 1,000th point for Messiah in the opening round. The 6-foot-2 forward closed her senior season averaging 16.5 points and 7.7 rebounds per game. She has one year of eligibility remaining.

Rader, who missed the end of the 2022-23 season with injury, averaged 6.2 points across 19 games for Christopher Newport, which entered NCAAs ranked No. 5 nationally with only one loss. A stunning 77-75 defeat against Johns Hopkins brought the Captains’ season to a screeching halt at 27-2.

Dodson and Mallory, both freshmen, were role players on their MAC Commonwealth teams. Chenault helped lead Chatham to its first-ever Presidents’ Athletic Conference title before the Cougars dropped their NCAA opener to Transylvania. 

A handful of local stars earned all-conference selections this season, including York College’s Breana Grim (Eastern York) and Alyssa Hocker (York Suburban) making the MACC second team. Juniata senior Evan Eisenhart (Central York) was a Landmark Conference men’s second-team honoree after averaging 12.9 points and sinking 69 triples in 25 games. And Chatham’s Elijah Sutton (Dover) was a PAC honorable mention after leading his team with 14 points per game.

Most Division II basketball leagues are staging their championships and naming all-conference selections this week, so expect more honors to roll in for local stars.

LION’S DEN

The Penn State York baseball team is in the middle of a five-day, six-game week at the Ripken Complex in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. The Nittany Lions entered the week 0-1 but earned a pair of victories Monday (9-2 over Penn State New Kensington, 3-2 over Muskegon CC). PSY suffered a 2-1 setback against Minnesota North-Ithaca on Tuesday, but Todd Meckley’s squad will be back in action at 2 p.m. Wednesday against Delaware Tech.

PSY men’s basketball, after winning the PSUAC championship Saturday in State College, will begin its USCAA Division II tournament run next Monday against Miami Hamilton in Virginia Beach. The Lions (27-6) will need three wins in three days to capture a national championship. It'll be the final playoff run for senior Deriq Brown (New Oxford), who was named PSUAC Men's Player of the Week after averaging 15 points and six rebounds in the league tournament.

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