| Scott Gaffney went 3-for-4 with three runs, two RBI, a home run, and scored the game-tying run in the top of the seventh in game two. |
- Game 1 Box Score
- Game 2 Box Score
EAST LANSING, Mich.; April 15, 2007 ?C Penn State rallied for four runs to erase a three-run deficit in the top of the seventh inning and held on in the bottom of the seventh for a 6-5 victory over Michigan State in the second game of Sunday??s doubleheader, giving the Nittany Lions a split on the afternoon and a 2-1 lead in the series.
Trailing 5-2 entering the seventh, Penn State got a leadoff walk and five hits in the inning, capped by Joe Blackburn??s (Sinking Spring, Pa.) RBI double to give the Lions the lead. Drew O??Neil (Roswell, Ga.) then put both the tying and winning runs on base in the bottom of the seventh before retiring the side to pick up the save. Penn State dropped the first game of the twinbill by a 4-1 score.
Up until the seventh inning of game two, the Nittany Lions struggled to score runs on the sunny but chilly afternoon at Kobs Field. After scoring just one run in the first game, the Lions had just two runs on the scoreboard, both of which were scored by Scott Gaffney (Westbury, N.Y.). The junior shortstop singled and later scored on a wild pitch in the first inning and then in the third, homered to the short porch in right field with one out in the third for his first round-tripper of the season. His home run tied the game 2-2 after Michigan State had tied the game at one in the first and then went ahead 2-1 with an unearned run in the second.
After Gaffney??s home run, the Spartans went back ahead with another unearned run in the third inning. They then extended the lead to a 4-2 advantage in the fourth inning as they benefited from a one-out walk to Evan Friedland, who went to third on a single and scored on a groundout by Brandon Doherty.
| Mike Lorentson Caption: Mike Lorentson picked up his first Penn State win with 1.2 innings of scoreless relief in game two. |
The Spartans, who scored a single run in each of the first five innings, added one more in the fifth inning as Penn State committed two errors in that inning, leading to another unearned run. Three of MSU??s five runs were unearned in the second game as the Spartans benefited from five Penn State errors in the contest.
All five runs were charged to starter Ryan Stobart (Barrington, Ill.) and the first reliever out of the bullpen, Gary Amato (Cocoa Beach, Fla.), who pitched one-third of an inning to start the fifth. After Amato was victimized by the two errors in the fifth and also gave up an RBI single, he was pulled in favor of Mike Lorentson (Springfield, Pa.), who got the final two outs of the fifth and also kept the Spartans off the scoreboard for the first time in the game in the sixth to set the stage for the seventh. Lorentson would pick up the win after Penn State??s rally and O??Neil??s save in the seventh, the first of his Penn State career.
Although reliever A.J. Dunn had struck out two in two-thirds of an inning to finish the sixth, Michigan State elected to go with closer Mike Monterey in the seventh. Landon Nakata (Honolulu, Hawaii) drew a leadoff walk and went to second on a single by Matt Cavagnaro (Brightwaters, N.Y.). He scored on a double down the line in left by Gaffney, who went 3-for-4 in the second game with three runs scored. His two-bagger put runners at second and third for Cory Wine (Stillwater, Okla.), who grounded a single into right field to score Cavagnaro but right fielder Chris Roberts booted the ball and let it get behind him for an error, allowing Gaffney to score the tying run and Wine to move to second. Blackburn then slapped a ball down the right field line for a double to drive in the go-ahead run in Wine but Blackburn overran second base and was thrown out trying to get back for the first out of the inning.
In the bottom of the seventh, with O??Neil on to try to pick up the save, he gave up back-to-back one out singles to Kyle Day and Justin Potes. Both runners advanced to second and third on the second out of the inning, a groundout back to O??Neil, before he got Roberts on another 1-3 putout to end the game and strand the tying and winning runs on base for his fifth save of the season.
| Joe Blackburn knocked in the go-ahead run with a double in the seventh inning of game two. |
The Nittany Lion offense struggled in the first game, once again negating an otherwise decent performance by Craig Clark (Phoenixville, Pa.). The senior lefty battled through five and two-thirds of an inning, allowing 12 hits but just four runs while striking out four. Two of those runs came on a two-out, two-run single in the bottom of the sixth that made it a 4-0 game after he had scattered the Spartan hits in his outing but had managed to pitch out of trouble in four of his previous five innings while only allowing two runs to keep the Nittany Lions in the game. The Spartans had also gotten one run in the first on a two-out RBI double by Dennis Jones and one in the third on a bases-loaded walk to Sean Walker.
Michigan State starter Jon Kibler pitched a complete game and kept Penn State hitters off-balance at the plate, allowing just three hits while striking out five and walking two in his outing. Penn State??s only run in the game came in the seventh inning on an RBI single by Mike Deese (Roswell, Ga.) that scored Gaffney, who had drawn a leadoff walk.
Penn State will look for a series win tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. in the series finale. Gaffney will start the nine-inning contest for the Nittany Lions.
Notes: Cavagnaro??s 16-game streak of reached base safely came to an end in the first game. He has still hit in 23 of Penn State??s 29 games and reached base safely in 26 of 29??.Blackburn has hit in 15 of his last 17 games??.Penn State picked off three baserunners in the first game, including two by Clark, giving him a Big Ten-leading six pickoffs on the year, and one by Blackburn. Two runners were picked off in the same inning, the second??.O??Neil assisted on all three putouts in the seventh inning of game two??.Gaffney leads the Nittany Lions in hitting in Big Ten games at .385??.Penn State won its second game this year in which it entered its final scheduled at-bat trailing. The other was against #1 North Carolina back on March 3 when they trailed the Tar Heels by one run entering the ninth??.The win was also the fifth of the year for Penn State in a game it had been trailing at any point during the game.