- Mount St. Mary's Game Notes(.PDF)
| Joe Blackburn has hit in his last six straight games and in 16 of his last 18 contests. |
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.; April 17, 2007 - Fresh off its first Big Ten series win in over two years, the Penn State baseball team will open up a six-game homestand on Wednesday night by hosting Mount St. Mary's at 6:35 p.m. at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park. The Mountaineers will be the second team from the Northeast Conference that the Nittany Lions will face.
Mount St. Mary's enters Wednesday's game coming off a similarly successful weekend as Penn State, having swept conference foe Wagner this past weekend to take over first place in the NEC, one game ahead of Central Connecticut, who the Nittany Lions faced earlier this year.
This will be the first meeting between the Nittany Lions and The Mount since the 1905 season. The teams first faced off in 1897 and also played every year from 1900-1905. Penn State holds a 5-1-1 advantage in the series, which has not been played in 102 years.
The Nittany Lions, winners of four of their last five games, enter Wednesday's game with an 12-18 record and a 5-5 mark in Big Ten play, good enough for sixth place in the league. Joe Blackburn has a six-game hitting streak and is hitting .462 during those six games. He has also hit in 16 of his last 18 games. Shortstop Scott Gaffney has been on a tear lately as well, raising his batting average by 77 points from .149 to .226 since the start of Big Ten play. As a team, Penn State raised its team batting average by nine points over the weekend series at Michigan State from .256 to .265.
On the mound, the pitching has been nothing short of outstanding as well lately. Penn State's team ERA of 4.10 is now ranked third in the Big Ten entering this week's midweek games, up from sixth entering last weekend. Chief among the reasons for this trend has been relief pitcher Matt Ogrodnik, who has thrown 10.2 straight scoreless innings over his last five appearances, picking up two wins and two saves in those last five games. Drew O'Neil also has two saves in his last two appearances.
Making his first career appearance and start on Wednesday will be true freshman Kayle Sickler out of Troy, Pa. for the Nittany Lions.