| Joe Blackburn went 4-for-4 with a pair of RBI and runs and is hitting .682 in his last six games. |
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UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.; April 24, 2007 ?C Matt Cavagnaro (Brightwaters, N.Y.) went 5-for-6 with three runs and two RBI, becoming the first player, college or pro, to have a five-hit game at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park, and Joe Blackburn (Sinking Spring, Pa.) continued his torrid hitting pace as of late by going 4-for-4 with a pair of runs and RBI to lead Penn State to a 12-8 win over Duquesne on Tuesday night. The win improves Penn State to 17-19 overall heading into a Big Ten series this weekend at Indiana.
The Nittany Lions scored in six of their eight at-bats and in doing so were able to withstand a pair of home runs by the Dukes?? Aaron Janusey, who became the first college player to hit a home run to dead center field at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park and the first player, college or pro, to have a multi-home run game and a five-RBI game at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park.
Every Nittany Lion in the starting lineup had at least one hit as Penn State pounded out 18 base knocks, a season high, including four extra-base hits. Rob Yodice (Staten Island, N.Y.) went 2-for-3 with a pair of RBI and Rick Marlin (Orlando, Fla.) went 2-for-4 with a run and an RBI. Louie Picconi (North Merrick, N.Y.) also had two RBI as he got the start at second for the second straight game and the third game over the last six.
Penn State struck first with two runs in the first as the Lions loaded the bases on singles by Cavagnaro and Cory Wine (Stillwater, Okla.) and a walk to Blackburn. Cavagnaro trotted home on a sacrifice fly by Yodice and Wine scored on a single by Mike Deese (Roswell, Ga.).
Blackburn helped to extend the lead to 4-0 in the second with a two-out, two-run double to deep center to drive in Cavagnaro and Brian Ernst (Boyertown, Pa.), who had put together back-to-back one-out singles.
Duquesne scored one run in the third on an RBI single by Alex Sharick but that was all it got off Penn State starter John Karr (Gibsonia, Pa.), who made his first career start on Tuesday. Karr left after the third inning with a 4-1 lead after allowing the one run on four hits while striking out three and walking three.
The Dukes tied the game up, however, in the fourth off reliever David Lutz (West Chester, Pa.), who served up the first home run of the day to Janusey to straight-away center field and into the batters?? eye, a two-out, three-run shot to tie it 4-4.
| Garrett Field became the first Penn State player in over four years and the first player, college or pro, to steal three bases in a game at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park. |
Penn State quickly answered to go ahead 5-4 in the bottom of the fourth as it put together a pair of two-out hits to retake the lead. Blackburn hit his second double of the evening to center field and Yodice followed with an RBI single to center to knock in Blackburn.
Both pitchers worked 1-2-3 fifth innings but Lutz ran into trouble again in the sixth inning once again in the form of Janusey, who clubbed his second dinger of the night to put the Dukes back up by a 7-5 score, this one a two-run shot just to the right of the batters?? eye. This came after Bill Torre had singled home Nolan Pena, who had doubled with one out. Lutz then nearly induced a double play to end the inning as he got a comebacker to himself and threw to second to force Torre to the second but Cavagnaro??s relay to first was just late as Chris Happ was ruled safe on a close play. Janusey then followed with his second home run.
The lead would not last for long, however, as Penn State went right back to work in the bottom of the sixth, getting a leadoff triple from Cavagnaro, his third hit of the night, and then a sacrifice fly by Ernst to score Cavagnaro to make it 7-6. The Nittany Lions would then take the lead in the bottom of the seventh, benefiting from the only error of the game by either team to score the go-ahead run. Garrett Field (Stillwater, Okla.) drew a two-out walk to start things, then stole second and scored on Picconi??s RBI single. Cavagnaro then blooped a single into short left field to send Picconi to third and Ernst??s grounder to short was mishandled by Torre, allowed Ernst to reach and Picconi to score the go-ahead run.
The Nits then added four more insurance runs in the eighth, getting four singles and a double in that frame. Marlin had an RBI single, Picconi and sacrifice fly, and Cavagnaro had a two-run double to finish off the scoring for Penn State.
| Ryan Stobart picked up his second win of the year with a scoreless inning of relief. |
Ryan Stobart (Barrington, Ill.) picked up the win in relief as he pitched a scoreless seventh inning and induced an inning-ending double play ball to end his outing. Gary Amato (Cocoa Beach, Fla.) pitched a scoreless eighth inning with Penn State only up by one run, striking out a pair and Matt Ogrodnik (Saltsburg, Pa.) finished things off with his Big Ten-leading 19th appearance out of the bullpen in the ninth.
Notes: Actor Joe Pantoliano, who plays Ralph Cifaretto on the HBO series ??The Sopranos,?? was in attendance at the game??.Cavagnaro??s five-hit game was the first for a Penn State player since Brian Ernst collected five hits in the series finale against Michigan State last year on April 16th??.Field stole three bases in the game, two of which helped lead to him scoring runs and in doing so became the first Penn State player to steal three bases in a game since Zack Smithlin on April 15, 2003 against Maryland. Field also became the first player, college or pro, to steal three bases in a game at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park??.Blackburn now has six multiple-hit games in the last six games he has gotten hits in, which span his last seven games. He has hit in 11 of his last 12 games, 15 of his last 17, and 21 of his last 24 games??.He is hitting .682 (15-for-22) in his last six games to raise his average to .387 and he has now reached base in eight straight plate appearances??.Stobart has now started six games and appeared in five out of the bullpen. He threw only one and one-third innings in his start last Saturday??.Penn State improves to 44-3 all-time against Duquesne.