| Seth Whitehill picked up his team-leading fourth win with six solid innings, striking out four. |
- Box Score
BLOOMINGTON, Ind.; April 27, 2007 ?C Penn State scored four runs in the second inning and then got a solo home run from Scott Kelley (Arlington Heights, Ill.), the first of his career, to put the Nittany Lions up for good in the sixth inning and the bullpen closed the door from there as Penn State won its sixth straight game with a 6-4 victory over Indiana in the series opener on Friday afternoon. The win streak is the longest winning streak for the Nittany Lions since the 2001 season and the longest under head coach Robbie Wine.
Seth Whitehill (Bellefonte, Pa.) picked up his team-leading fourth win with a six-inning effort, allowing six hits and all four runs. He struck out four and walked four. Paul Hawkins (Glen Hope, Pa.) pitched one and two-thirds scoreless innings and Drew O??Neil (Roswell, Ga.) finished the final one and a third innings, retiring all four hitters he faced for his sixth save of the year.
The eighth and ninth hitters in Penn State??s lineup, Kelley and Jim Leitgeb (Elkton, Md.), each drove in two runs apiece. Kelley went 2-for-4 and also scored a pair of runs while Leitgeb went 2-for-5. Mike Deese (Roswell, Ga.) went 2-for-3 and reached base in four of his five plate appearances.
Indiana scored a pair of runs in the first inning, taking advantage of a leadoff walk to Keith Haas and a hit batsman in Evan Crawford that began the inning. Both runners were sacrificed over a base and scored on a single to center by Jon Fixler before Whitehill got the final two outs.
| Drew O'Neil retired all four hitters he faced to pick up his sixth save of the year. |
The lead did not last long, however, as the Nittany Lions scored four in the top of the second. After Hoosier starter Joe Vicini retired the first four Penn State hitters of the game, he issued a one-out walk to Deese and then gave up a single to Brian Ernst (Boyertown, Pa.). Rick Marlin (Orlando, Fla.) then flied out for the second out of the inning, sending Deese to third, but Kelley followed with a bloop single into short right to score Deese. Then, with both the left and center fielders playing shallow, Leitgeb drove a pitch into deep center field that dropped just off the glove of IU center fielder Andrew Means for a two-run triple. Matt Cavagnaro (Brightwaters, N.Y.) then singled to score Leitgeb.
It remained a 4-2 Penn State lead until the fifth inning as the Hoosiers got a bloop single into short center by Haas to leadoff the inning and then two bunt singles by Crawford and Means to load the bases. A walk to Fixler forced in a run and a one-out sacrifice fly by Tyler Tufts scored Crawford with the tying run.
Once again, however, the Nittany Lions immediately responded to the Hoosiers scoring, as Kelley led off the top of the sixth with his first career home run, an opposite-field shot that dropped over the fence just underneath the scoreboard in right field to give Penn State the 5-4 lead. The homer came off reliever Chris McCombs, who had relived Vicini with runners on second and third and no outs in the third and gotten out of that jams and had then kept Penn State off the scoreboard until that Kelley dinger.
| Jim Leitgeb had a big two-run triple in the four-run second inning and went 2-for-5. |
The Nittany Lions added an insurance run in the eighth as Cavagnaro was hit by a pitch to lead off, sacrificed to second by Scott Gaffney (Westbury, N.Y.), and scored on Joe Blackburn??s (Sinking Spring, Pa.) two-out double.
Hawkins, who had relieved Whitehill and worked a 1-2-3 seventh inning, ran into some trouble after getting the first two outs in the eighth as he gave up a single and a pair of walks to load the bases. O??Neil entered and struck out Crawford looking to end the threat before working a perfect ninth, not allowing a ball out of the infield.
Saturday??s doubleheader will begin at 1:00 p.m.
Notes: Cavagnaro extended his hitting streak to nine games with a second-inning single, tied for his season best hitting streak??.Not only was Kelley??s home run his first career round-tripper, but it was also the sophomore's second career extra-base hit. Kelley is in his first year as a full-time outfielder after spending last year in the bullpen??.Hawkins allowed a walk for the first time in his last 14.2 innings??.The six-game winning streak is the longest since the 2001 season, when Penn State won eight games in a row from March 24 through April 6??.O??Neil is now just one save away from tying the Penn State single-season record for saves, which is seven and is held by Shawn Fagan, who did it in 1998??.Penn State now has had 10 or more hits in 12 of its last 17 games??.The Nittany Lions are now 4-1 in Big Ten series openers this year??.PSU has also won 10 of its last 12 games??.Blackburn has now hit in 22 of his last 25 games and 12 of his last 13 and has reached base safely in 13 straight games and in 24 of his last 25??.Gaffney went 3-for-4 and raised his average to .268, 119 points higher than it was at the start of Big Ten play??.The Nittany Lions have now played four straight errorless games after having another clean game in the field on Friday.