| Drew O'Neil threw three scoreless innings to pick up his third win of the year and improve to 3-1. |
- Game 1 Recap
- Game 1 Box Score
- Game 2 Box Score
ANN ARBOR, Mich.; May 12, 2007 ?C After Michigan took a 4-0 lead after five innings in a scheduled seven-inning game, Penn State rallied with four runs in the top of the sixth to tie the game 4-4 behind home runs by Scott Gaffney (Westbury, N.Y.) and Rick Marlin (Orlando, Fla.). Then, after closer Drew O??Neil (Roswell, Ga.) pitched a scoreless seventh to send the game into extra innings and then pitched a scoreless eighth, Penn State took the lead behind an RBI single from Gaffney in the top of the ninth before O??Neil once again retired the side in the bottom of the ninth to give Penn State a 5-4 win and a split in the Saturday doubleheader against the No. 16 Wolverines.
The win is Penn State??s 12th come-from-behind win of the year and the second win for the Nittany Lions this year over a nationally-ranked team. Penn State also topped then No. 1 North Carolina, also in extra innings, back on March 3.
Gaffney went 3-for-5 with a pair of RBI while Mike Deese (Roswell, Ga.) and Marlin both went 2-for-4, with Marlin having three RBI. Starter Craig Clark (Phoenixville, Pa.) pitched six innings, allowing eight hits and four runs while striking out two and walking two. He escaped a jam in the fifth innings with allowing only one run and pitched around a leadoff single and a sacrifice that got the runner to second in the sixth with just one out without allowing a run to keep the Nittany Lions in the game.
The Wolverines picked up right where they left off in game one with the long ball as Nate Recknagel gave Michigan an early lead with a solo home run left with two outs in the first.
A leadoff single by Kevin Cislo and a double by Jason Christian in the third made it 2-0 and after a sacrifice sent Christian to third, he scored on a single by Recknagel to make it 3-0.
Clark nearly got out of a jam in the fifth without allowing any runs but after a walk to the leadoff hitter Cislo and then getting the first two outs of the inning, he walked the dangerous Recknagel before giving up a bloop single to Zach Putnam that fell in between Brian Ernst (Boyertown, Pa.) in center and Matt Cavagnaro (Brightwaters, N.Y.) at second to drive in Cislo to make it 4-0.
Penn State got on the scoreboard for the first time on the day against Michigan starter Mike Wilson and not only just got on the board but tied the game with a pair of home runs of their own. Gaffney led off with his third home run of the year, a no-doubter to left field that was his first home run to left of the year. Both of his previous home runs had been to right.
Then, after the first two outs of the inning were made, Deese slapped a single into right field and Ernst drew a four-pitch walk, bringing Marlin to the plate, who smashed a 1-0 pitch over the left-field wall for his second home run of the year to tie the score 4-4.
| Rick Marlin hit his second home run of the year, a three-run shot in the sixth inning to tie the game, and went 2-for-4 with the three RBI to lead Penn State to the win over Michigan and a doubleheader split on Saturday. |
The Nittany Lions put runners at first and second against reliever Michael Powers in the seventh but were unable to score. A two-out single by Marlin in the eighth failed to produce anything either. Meanwhile, O??Neil, after setting down the side in order in the seventh, escaped trouble in the eighth by throwing out pinch runner Kenny Fellows at second after Adam Abraham had attempted to lay down a sacrifice bunt. O??Neil had hit Putnam with a pitch to lead off the inning. He then struck out Doug Pickens and got Derek VanBuskirk to pop out to end the frame.
In the top of the ninth, Cavagnaro doubled with one out to left center and Gaffney followed with a seeing-eye single through the left side. Cavagnaro was waved home and beat the throw to give the Nittany Lions a 5-4 lead. O??Neil then worked around trouble once again in the ninth as he gave up a single to Cislo with one out. Christian then flied out deep to right field for the second out. O??Neil then hit Eric Rose with his first pitch to him before getting the dangerous Recknagel to fly out to Marlin in shallow right field. Marlin had to make a slid to haul in the short fly to end the game.
Penn State remains at .500 overall with a 23-23 record after the split and is now 15-9 in the Big Ten. After Saturday??s action, the Nittany Lions have moved into third place alone after entering the weekend tied for third place with Iowa, who lost two of the first three games of its series at Purdue this weekend.
Notes: Jim Leitgeb (Elkton, Md.) made his first start and appearance since the third game of the Indiana series two weekends ago. Leitgeb, who primarily plays against left-handed pitchers, did not see any action last weekend against Purdue, who did not start a lefty??.Marlin??s home run in the sixth was his first since February 18 at Centenary, the fourth game of the year. He had gone 133 at-bats since his last round-tripper??.O??Neil hit the first batter he faced in the eighth inning, his second inning of work, breaking a string of 23 straight batters that he retired. It was the first baserunner he allowed since April 15th at Michigan State. The one-out single allowed in the bottom of the ninth was also the first hit he has allowed since that April 15 game as well??.In both of Penn State??s wins over ranked teams this year, the games were started by Clark and finished by O??Neil??.O??Neil??s three innings of work were his career high...Clark's six innings of work gave him 260.2 career innings pitched to move him into fourth place on the all-time Penn State list.