| Ryan Stobart picked up his first Penn State win with a six-inning performance in Saturday's first game. |
- Game 1 Box Score
- Game 2 Box Score
- Photos
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.; March 31, 2007 ?C Ryan Stobart (Barrington, Ill.) picked up his first win with Penn State in the first game of Saturday??s doubleheader with Drew O??Neil (Roswell, Ga.) picking up the save but Minnesota??s offense accumulated nine runs in four different innings in the second game as the Nittany Lions split Saturday??s twinbill with the Golden Gophers before another record-setting crowd of 1,782 at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park. The 1,782 fans topped the 1,704 that saw last night??s series opener for the largest college crowd at the new stadium.
In the first game, Stobart scattered nine hits over six innings of work but allowed just two runs, both earned. He struck out three and helped himself by not walking any batters. Starting just his third game of the year, the junior out of Oakton Community College stranded five Gophers on the basepaths in his six innings, twice getting double play balls to get out of jams. He gave up a one-out double in the first and a pair of singles in the second with just one out but worked his way out of the situations.
Penn State pushed across an unearned run without the benefit of a hit in the second inning to take the early 1-0 lead. Cory Wine (Stillwater, Okla.) drew a leadoff walk and went all the way to third when pitcher Gary Perinar??s pickoff throw got all the way down the right field line. He scored on a groundout by Rob Yodice (Staten Island, N.Y.).
In the Minnesota third, Matt Nohelty and Dan Lyons both singled to lead off the inning. Mike Mee, who entered the series at the Big Ten??s leading hitter but had been kept hitless and off the bases in his first five at bats of the series, singled to drive in Nohelty and give Minnesota a 1-0 lead. Stobart then got Kyle Baran to ground into a double play that put Lyons at third with two outs. Nate Hanson then was thrown out on a grounder that came back and hit Stobart before caroming to Mike Deese (Roswell, Ga.) at third, who threw him out to end the inning.
The Nittany Lions quickly answered with a run in the bottom of the third as Garrett Field (Stillwater, Okla.) legged out a double with one out by hustling into the second on a blooper that dropped just inside the right field line. He scored on a single up the middle by Matt Cavagnaro (Brightwaters, N.Y.).
Minnesota evened the score once more in the top of the fifth when Nohelty once again led off with a single, was sacrificed to second and then scored on Mee??s second straight single through the right side. Stobart once again averted further damage, however, by inducing an inning-ending 6-4-3 double play off the bat of Baran.
Just as they had done in the third, the Nittany Lions answered right back again by retaking the lead in the bottom of the fifth, putting together a string of two-out hits to do so. After the first two outs of the inning had been made, Cavagnaro singled to center and stole second before scoring on Scott Gaffney??s (Westbury, N.Y.) single through the right side.
Stobart got the side in order in the sixth on three straight fly balls before O??Neil came on to get the side in the seventh for his second save of the year. He has now saved two of Penn State??s wins this year.
In game two, Mee continued his hit parade as he stroked a two-out double in the top of the first and then scored on Baran??s single to give the Gophers an early 1-0 lead. In the third, after a walk to leadoff hitter Lyons, Mee singled once again as did Baran to drive in Lyons with the second run of the game. After Nittany Lion starter Seth Whitehill (Bellefonte, Pa.) got the next two hitters out, reliever Gary Amato was brought in and gave up an RBI single to Derek McCallum to make it 3-0 before retiring the side.
In the fourth, with two outs, Lyons singled and Mee followed with the first home run for an opponent at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park, a shot to nearly the same spot in right field at Yodice??s home run last night to make it 5-0.
Reliever David Lutz (West Chester, Pa.) made his third appearance of the year and pitched a scoreless fifth. The Nittany Lions then scored their only two runs of the game in the bottom of the fifth as Rick Marlin (Orlando, Fla.) led off with a double and eventually scored on a balk by Gopher starter Marcus McKenzie. The other run scored on another RBI single by Gaffney with two outs. After Blackburn reached on an infield hit to put runners at the corners and bring the tying run to the plate, reliever Kyle Carr entered and got Wine on a flyout to left to end the threat.
The Gophers scored four more runs in the seventh innings, one of which was unearned, off reliever Matt Ogrodnik (Saltsburg, Pa.) before freshman John Karr (Gibsonia, Pa.) came on to get the final two outs of the inning on a pair of fly outs.
Cavagnaro went 3-for-6 with a run and an RBI over the doubleheader while Gaffney was 2-for-5 with a pair of RBIs. Blackburn reached base in four of his seven plate appearances in both games while Wine went 2-for-2 with a run and was on base in all three of his plate appearances in the first game. Marlin went 2-for-3 in game two.
Penn State will look for a split of the series tomorrow at 1:05 p.m. when Scott Gaffney takes the hill.