The Chestnut Hill College and the Indiana University of Pennsylvania baseball teams played each other for the first time in their respective programs history on Thursday providing those in attendance at CHC's Hostelley Field with a big display of offense as the Crimson Hawks defeated the Griffins 12-10.

The two teams combined for 26 hits, seven extra-base hits, including four home runs and a total of 22 runs before the Crimson Hawks emerged victorious to improve to 4-3 on the season.  The Griffins dropped to 4-9 with the loss.

Justin Geiger had four hits and two RBI while R.J. Huth and David Antone hit solo home runs. Michael Pascoe also drove in two runs with two hits.  Antone and Christian Peluso had two hits apiece on the afternoon.  Marlon Rose (1-1) took the loss for the Griffins in relief of Jake Schweiker.  Rose allowed five runs, only two of which were earned in 2.2 innings.  Colby Seelig struck out five in 2.2 scoreless innings to close out the game.

The back and forth battle saw the Griffins score in each of the first five innings with eight through the first three frames and one each in the fourth and fifth to account for their ten runs. The Crimson Hawks plated ten runs in the third through fifth innings before breaking the 10-10 tie with two runs in the top half of the seventh.

The Griffins had led for much of the game with the Crimson Hawks tying the score in the third inning at 4-4 only to have Chestnut Hill come back in score four in their half of the third to take an 8-4 lead.    IUP scored three times in the fourth and again in the fifth to take a 10-9 lead before the Griffins tied it with a solo run in the bottom half of the fifth.

Rose faced four batters in the seventh recording just one out as the Crimson Hawks scored twice to break the 10-all tie.

Chestnut Hill put the tying runs on base in the ninth inning and had runners on second and third with nobody out when a potential sacrifice fly from Geiger turned into two outs on a questionable appeal play at third base, all but ending the Griffins attempt to come back and win the game.

Huth hit his first home run of the season in the second, staking the Griffins to a 4-0 lead.  Antone hit his blast two innings later, giving the Griffins a two-run lead,9-7.

Following a three-run fifth inning that saw the Crimson Hawks take a 10-9 lead, the Griffins tied the score on a two-out single up the middle by Phoenix Bowman, scoring Aiden Myers who drew a one-out walk earlier.

Two innings earlier the Griffins broke a 4-4 tie with a four run outburst.   Singles by Peluso and Antone followed by Bobby Sabatino getting hit by a pitch loaded the bases with nobody out.  Dan Ciotti singled to advance the runners and score Peluso and three batters later Pascoe was hit by a pitch to score Antone.  Geiger then delivered a two-out double to center field, scoring Ciotti and Sabatino for an 8-4 Griffins lead.

The Griffins got on the board in their first at-bat, scoring their first run without the aid of a hit as Huth walked, was sacrificed to second, went to third on a wild pitch and scored on Pascoe's infield groundout.  A single by Geiger and a walk to Bowman led to the second run as Peluso followed with a single to left field as Geiger, running on the play, scored.  Two batters later Sabatino drew a bases loaded walk to score Bowman and give the Griffins a 3-0 lead and end the day for IUP starter Jimmy Tooley, who walked four batters in the inning.

David Kessler and Blaise Zeiders each hit two run home runs for the Crimson Hawks, both coming in the third inning off Schweiker.  Kessler finished the game with five RBI on two hits while Zeiders drove in four with three hits.  Dane Sanmartino (1-0) earned the win for the Crimson Hawks. 

The Griffins' baseball team returns to action over the weekend with a pair of regional doubleheaders as they prep for their first conference games of the season. Chestnut Hill travels to face the College of Staten Island on Saturday and then hosts Lincoln University, who will become an associate member of the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference for baseball in 2025.  The Lincoln doubleheader is scheduled to start at 1 p.m.