DINWIDDIE, Va. – IUP pitchers struck out 12 St. Thomas Aquinas batters but the Crimson Hawks dropped a sixth inning lead and fell to the sixth-ranked Trojans 5-4 Friday afternoon at the Dinwiddie Challenge in Virginia.
 
RHP Mike Klingensmith (Punxsutawney, Pa./Punxsutawney) started and struck out five batters through nearly four innings of work, giving up four hits and three earned runs.
 
Klingensmith gave way to Travis Holman (Ambridge, PA/Ambridge) in the fourth, with Dan Roan (Bellefonte, PA/Bellefonte), JP Pellis (Greensburg, PA/Greensburg Central Catholic) and Christian McClure (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Cumberland Valley) following in the mound in the nine inning game. The bullpen combined for seven strikeouts, two hits and two earned runs in 5.1 innings of work.
 
The loss drops the Crimson Hawks to 0-4 in just the second weekend of the regular season. The win for St. Thomas Aquinas came in the first game of the season for the Trojans.
 
Countering those 12 strikeouts from IUP pitchers were 11 walks, three of which scored.
 
The Crimson Hawks had a 1-0 lead in the first after a leadoff triple by Chris Eisel (Pittsburgh, Pa./Baldwin) and went up 4-3 in the sixth with a three-run inning. After two outs to start the sixth, IUP batters took advantage of two walks and four hit by pitches to plate three runs.
 
St. Thomas grabbed the lead back in the bottom half at 5-4 with a two-run, one out single.
 
The Crimson Hawks had just two base runners the rest of the way, with Bo Putt (Indiana, Pa./Indiana Area) advancing into scoring position in the eighth, but came up empty over the final three innings.
 
Up next
The Crimson Hawks have a doubleheader scheduled against No. 2 West Chester (0-1) Saturday afternoon. First pitch is scheduled for 10 a.m.
 
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