- Box Score
| Scott Gaffney threw three innings while on a pitch count, giving up just two hits and one unearned run in three innings of work to pick up his second win of the year as the Nittany Lions downed Bucknell 6-5. |
University Park, Pa.; April 3, 2007 ?C Penn State scored two runs in the second inning and four in the third and then held on in the late innings for a narrow 6-5 win over Bucknell on Tuesday night. The Nittany Lions won their 12th straight game over the Bison in the Battle of Route 45 in what is the most-played and longest-running series in school history. This year??s game marked the 142nd all-time meeting between the two schools and this year marked the 21st straight year that the teams have met.
Mike Deese (Roswell, Ga.) provided the big blow of the night as he stroked a two-run home run to left field, his first as a Nittany Lion, in the four-run third inning to give the Lions a 6-1 lead. Deese went 2-for-4 on the night. Rob Yodice (Staten Island, N.Y.) ent 1-for-4 with an RBI double and also scored two runs while both Cory Wine (Stillwater, Okla.) and Joe Blackburn (Sinking Spring, Pa.) each had two hits and a run scored.
Scott Gaffney (Westbury, N.Y.) picked up the win for the Nittany Lions on the mound, his second of the year and the first Nittany Lion hurler to pick up multiple victories this season. Pitching on a pitch count after missing his start on Sunday due to the rain out against Minnesota, the junior righty pitched three innings, allowing two hits and one unearned run while striking out two and walking none. Mike Lorentson (Springfield, Pa.) pitched two innings of relief, allowing three hits and three runs, while Paul Hawkins (Glen Hope, Pa.) pitched the next three frames, allowing three hits and no runs. Drew O??Neil (Roswell, Ga.) picked up his third save of the year by pitching the ninth, allowing a hit and an unearned run to close it out.
The Nittany Lions struck first with two runs in the second inning, getting one earned and one unearned run. Blackburn led off with a single up the middle and advanced to second on a wild pitch. He scored when Bison first baseman Mark Angelo had a ball hit by Yodice go through his legs for an error. One out later, Jim Leitgeb (Elkton, Md.) was hit by a pitch before Rick Marlin (Orlando, Fla.) singled to load the bases. Yodice scored on a sacrifice fly by Brian Ernst (Boyertown, Pa.).
After the Bison put up an unearned run in the third, the Nittany Lions answered with four runs to take the 6-1 lead in their half of the third. Gaffney, who was also hitting in addition to being the starting pitcher, led off with a bunt single and went to second on a wild throw to first by pitcher Andrew Clarke. Gaffney scored on a single to right by Wine, who one out later scored on a double to deep right by Yodice. Yodice touched the plate on Deese??s home run into the picnic pavilion in left field.
The Bison answered back with two of their own in the top of the fourth off Lorentson, who gave up a single to Ryan Gryskevicz and back-to-back walks to Angelo and Austin Turban to load the bases with no outs before getting two straight groundouts that scored the two runs and a strikeout to end the inning and strand a runner at third.
In the fourth, a two-out RBI double by Gryskevicz plated Dane Grandizio, who had led off the inning with a bunt single and had been sacrificed to second, to make it 6-4.
Hawkins then worked three scoreless innings, getting out of a first and second, one-out jam in his first inning of work, the sixth, by inducing an inning-ending double play ball. He would get five of his last six outs via the ground ball. He retired seven of the last eight hitters he faced.
In the ninth, O??Neil gave up a leadoff walk to Ben Allen, who advanced to second on a passed ball and to third on a single by Grandizio with no outs. Allen scored on a sacrifice fly to left by Ben Yoder and then O??Neil got Jason Buusma to ground into a game-ending 4-6-3 double play, the second one turned on the night by the Nittany Lions. There were six total twin-killings turned on the night, as the Bison turned four.
Matt Cavagnaro (Brightwaters, N.Y.), who went 1-for-4 in the game, had a career-high eight assists from his shortstop position, including two straight outstanding plays to rob Bucknell players of hits in the seventh inning.
The Nittany Lions will be back in action tomorrow when they host Kent State at 5:05 p.m. at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park.