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Apr 20, 2026 By Rob Burchianti 5 min read

Penn State Fayette’s baseball team battled hard in a four-game set against Penn State Shenango over the weekend but came away with nothing to show for it.

The Roaring Lions dropped two games at Shenango on Friday by scores of 8-5 and 4-2, then lost two games at home on Saturday, 13-2 and 7-5, to fall to 2-14 in PSUAC play.

Uniontown graduate Hunter Smiley was 2 for 4 with a game-tying solo home run and a double and two RBIs in the final game of the set for Fayette but Shenango scored a pair of seventh-inning runs to complete the sweep.

Fayette head coach Ryan Encapera was satisfied with his team’s pitching but pointed out a lack of clutch hitting was costly.

“Our pitching has improved tremendously and in all four games with Shenango our pitching kept us competitive,” Encapera said. “Josh Hammer was outstanding in game one, Ashton Ray was dominant in game two and (Brogan) Meighen and (Remington) Lessman were good on day two despite taking close losses.”

Shenango parlayed two triples and two singles into a five-run first inning against Hammer in Friday’s first game. Hammer settled down after the rough start and allowed just two earned runs on four hits the rest of the way in going the distance with 102 pitches. For the game he gave up seven earned runs on eight hits with four walks and two strikeouts.

Fayette rallied to tie it with five runs in the top of the third.

Louis Vilchez and Connor Perry started the rally with a single and a double. Frank Macioce and Alex Weber then drew back-to-back walks to force in a run, a wild pitch made it 5-2 and James Knapton followed with a two-run single to center to get the Roaring Lions within one.

A single by AJ Segarra, who had two hits, advanced Knapton to third and he scored the tying run from there on Ray’s sacrifice fly.

Shenango went back on top 6-5 in the bottom of the inning on Anthony Miller’s second triple of the game and a ground out and that lead would stand up.

In Friday’s second game, the Roaring Lions got another complete-game performance, this one from Ray who gave up four runs on eight hits with four walks and three strikeouts while throwing 90 pitches.

Fayette was limited to five hits, though, with two coming from Weber who also drove in a run.

“Ashton Ray has had great outings the last couple weeks and it’s too bad we couldn’t get a ‘W” for him,” Encapera said. “He has also hit well recently and I’m hopeful both of those trends will continue.”

The Roaring Lions trailed 1-0 when they combined a walk, an error, a hit batter and an run-scoring groundout by Joshua Gonzalez together to tie it at 1-1.

Shenango tack on single runs in the third and fourth innings to go up 3-1.

Smiley singled to start off the Roaring Lions’ fifth inning. Brownsville graduate Jonathan Vasbinder went in to pinch run and took second on Gonzalez’ sacrifice bunt then scored when Weber shot an RBI grounder through the left side to make it 3-2. Fayette could get no closer.

The only lopsided game of the series came in Saturday’s opener as the Roaring Lions returned home with Shenango pounding out 13 runs on 18 hits.

Starting pitcher Lessman gave up 14 hits and nine runs in six innings but only five of the runs were earned.

Knapton and Weber had run-scoring singles in the first inning to give Fayette an early 2-1 advantage but the wouldn’t score again. Perry was 2 for 4 as the hosts were limited to five hits.

In Saturday’s second game, the Roaring Lions rallied from an early 4-0 deficit to tie but Shenango pushed across two runs in the top of the seventh to win it.

Meighan tossed Fayette’s third complete of the series but surrendered 13 hits with three walks and three strikeouts.

The Roaring Lions cut the deficit in half with a pair of runs in the third inning. Tyler Marra walked and eventually scored when he stole third base and hustled home as Knapton stole second. Ray’s single brought in Knapton.

After Shenango scored once to make it 5-2 in the top of the fourth, Fayette pushed across two more runs in the bottom of the inning to pull with one.

Weber singled, Vasbinder bunted him to second and Perry walked to set the stage for Smiley, who delivered a two-run double to left.

Smiley wasn’t done.

In the sixth inning he blasted a game-tying solo home run to left.

Shenango’s Troy Bachman answered with a two-run homer in the top of the seventh which proved to be the difference.

Macioce put the tying run on base with a one-out single in the bottom of the seventh but Brady Walker recorded the final two outs to notch the save.

Smiley was 2 for 4 with three RBIs, Ray had two hits and knocked in one run and Macioce also had two hits for the Roaring Lions.

“Hunter Smiley had some big hits,” Encapera said. “Just wasn’t enough.

“In each of the games we were missing big hits that could have made a difference. Winning teams get the big two-out hits and we couldn’t get it done.”

The Roaring Lions host Patrick Henry in non-conference play on Wednesday with a 2 p.m. start, the close out their PSUAC slate against Penn State New Kensington with away games at 1 and 3 p.m. Friday and home games also at 1 and 3 p.m. Saturday. Fayette will honors its seniors before Saturday’s early game.