The Keuka College baseball team dropped a 7-0 decision to Penn State-Berks on day one of the annual North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) postseason tournament Friday afternoon at Hoy Field in Washington, D.C.

The Storm (22-13), the tournament's No. 2 seed, fell to Berks (16-18), the tournament's No. 3 seed, in a game played at host Gallaudet University.

Berks starter Kyle Hartman held the Storm to six singles as Keuka College lost for just the fourth time in its last 19 games.

The Green and Gold now face Gallaudet, which lost to SUNYIT 1-0 in 11 innings, at 10 a.m. Saturday in an elimination game. The winner of the Keuka/Gallaudet contest moves on to play Berks at 1 p.m., while the loser's season comes to an end.

Sophomore Billy McDermott (Clarks Summit, Pa./Abington Heights) was the only member of the Storm with two hits. He finished 2-for-3, while senior Gavin Corbin (Endicott, NY/Union-Endicott) and juniors Conner Anderson (Missoula, MT/Sentinel), Jake Burachalk (Binghamton, NY/Binghamton) and Tommy Drumm (Oswego, NY/Oswego) each had singles in a losing effort.

Senior Jeremy Pyszczynski (Alden, NY/St. Mary's) worked in and out of trouble all day, but fell to 4-4 after allowing six runs (five earned) on 12 hits over six innings pitched. It was Keuka's first loss to Berks in four games this year.

"Hartman threw a real nice game. He's a hard thrower and we just couldn't catch up to his fastball, and when we did hit the ball hard, we hit it right at people," said Rick Ferchen, Keuka College's first-year head coach.

"I thought Jeremy pitched a good game, he wasn't hit hard and it's not like we gave them a lot of runs. They earned them and we didn't. Now we have to bounce back. The problem is, this is the first postseason tournament for most of our guys, and they don't know how to handle the double-elimination format. They have to understand that, okay, you lost the first game, but you're still in the tournament. As long as we're still playing, we have a chance to win, and that's something our guys have to understand before tomorrow."

Berks pushed across a run in the first on an RBI single from Ryan Tantala. Corbin and Anderson each singled in the second as the Storm had runners on first and second with one out, but Hartman got a strikeout and a pop out to end the inning.

In the third, the Nittany Lions strung together three straight two-out hits to take a 3-0 lead into the bottom of the inning.

McDermott and Burachalk each singled with one out in the 3rd, but Hartman used a fly out and a strikeout to escape the jam and keep the Storm off the scoreboard.

With one out in the fourth, Berks threatened to break the game open, getting runners on second and third. But Pyszczynski induced Kyle Rissmiller to pop out and Tom Grablewski to foul out to senior Justyn Schuck (Hammondsport, NY/Hammondsport) to keep the score 3-0.

The Green and Gold threatened in the bottom of the inning as Anderson walked and Drumm had an infield single with two outs. But again, Hartman got out of the inning thanks to a fly out.

The Storm did not record a hit in the fifth, sixth or seventh innings, and had only one base-runner during that stretch when Burachalk drew a one-out walk in the fifth. But Hartman got an inning-ending double play as the Storm were held scoreless.

With two outs in the fifth, Berks used a double and a single to push across a run, and tacked on two more runs in the sixth for a 6-0 lead. The Nittany Lions added a run in the ninth and held the Storm to just one hit over the final 5 1/3 innings to advance.

"We can't hang our heads tomorrow (about today's loss) because we're facing the NEAC Pitcher of the Year (Brandon Holsworth) and we've already seen him," Ferchen said. "He's a quality pitcher, and if you don't believe that you can compete and hit the ball off of him, you might as well not show up. But I know this team and I like this team and they haven't given up all year."