| Drew O'Neil recorded saves in both games of Saturday's twinbill to run his total to 10 on the year. |
- Game 1 Box Score
- Game 2 Box Score
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.; May 19, 2007 ?C Penn State used some stellar pitching, both from the starting and relieving ends of the pitching staff to limit Ohio State??s ability to hit in the clutch while the Nittany Lions were able to collect just enough clutch hits themselves to sweep Saturday??s doubleheader from the Buckeyes by scores of 4-2 and 3-2. The sweep clinches Penn State??s first series win over Ohio State since the Big Ten championship season of 1996 and it also only the second-ever series win in the Big Ten for the Nittany Lions over the Buckeyes. Overall, it is the third series win in school history for the Nittany Lions over the Buckeyes, as Penn State also won two out of three vs. Ohio State in 1959. Additionally, it improves Penn State??s Big Ten record to 20-9, which sets a school record for most Big Ten wins in a season, surpassing the 19 wins recorded during the aforementioned 1996 season.
After Penn State??s first win of the day and Michigan??s win over Iowa in the first game of that doubleheader today, Penn State wrapped up at least a third place finish in the Big Ten. However, any shot at winning the Big Ten championship vanished with the win for Michigan today as the Wolverines clinched the title and will host next week??s Big Ten Tournament. But, with the win in the second game and Minnesota??s loss to Indiana in the second game of that doubleheader, the Nittany Lions remain in contention for finishing second place and gaining the first round bye that comes along with it. Penn State will need to win tomorrow and have Minnesota lose to Indiana to finish in second.
Scott Gaffney (Westbury, N.Y.) led the way for the Nittany Lions in the doubleheader as he went a combined 3-for-5 in the twinbill with three runs scored and a pair of home runs to roughly the same part of the ballpark, one in each game. Drew O??Neil (Roswell, Ga.) picked up saves in both games of the doubleheader, his ninth and 10th saves of the year, extending his own school record he set last weekend for saves in a season. Paul Hawkins (Glen Hope, Pa.) improved to a perfect 4-0 on the year with a career-high five innings pitched in the second game while Craig Clark (Phoenixville, Pa.) was his usual self in game one, throwing six innings and allowing just two runs to improve to 5-4.
| Brian Ernst went 2-for-3 with a run and an RBI double in the first game. |
The Nittany Lions used a pair of long balls to account for half of their runs in the first game. Gaffney gave Penn State a 1-0 lead with his first round-tripper of the day, a rocket shot over the fence in right center for his fourth home run of the year in the first inning.
Clark cruised along through the first four innings, only needing to get out of a slight jam in the third as he stranded runners at second and third after giving up a single and walk and then having the runners move up on a failed pickoff throw that got into center. He induced a double play ball to wipe out a one-out bunt single in the first and easily pitched around a one-out walk in the second and a one-out single in the fourth.
Penn State took a 4-0 lead in the fourth with three runs, the first of which came on a Cory Wine (Stillwater, Okla.) line drive home run into the bleachers in right field that was hit so hard, it caromed off both fans seated there and the bleachers back onto the field. Joe Blackburn (Sinking Spring, Pa.) then singled up the middle, another rocket off Buckeye starter J.B. Shuck. He stole second and then scored on Brian Ernst??s (Boyertown, Pa.) double down the left field line that bounced just over the head of Ohio State third baseman Brian DeLucia. One out later, Ernst came home on Scott Kelley??s (Arlington Heights, Ill.) single through the left side.
In the fifth, Ohio State scored its first run as it loaded the bases with no outs on a pair of singles and a walk. Clark then bore down and got a sacrifice fly off the bat of Matt Angle that scored the run but then induced another double play ball, this one off the bat of Eric Fryer, to end the inning.
The Buckeyes scored on more in the sixth to pull within 4-2 as Jason Zoeller led off with a double and two outs later scored on a ground-rule double off the bat of Chris Macke. But Clark picked off Macke at second base to the end the inning for his Big Ten-leading eighth pickoff of the year.
| Paul Hawkins pitched a career-high five innings in his second career start to improve to 4-0 on the season. |
O??Neil worked around a two-out walk to retire the side in the seventh, getting a groundout and two strikeouts to end the game for his ninth save of the year. Ernst went 2-for-3 in game one as he was the only Lion to record multiple hits.
Game two started out much the same way that game one did for the Nittany Lions, as Gaffney hit his second home run of the day to about the same spot over the fence in right center field with one out in the first inning to give PSU the 1-0 lead.
Ohio State, however, tied the score in the top of the second with an unearned run as they capitalized on an error and a passed ball to get leadoff hitter Justin Miller to second base with no outs and he scored on Zoeller??s single through the left side. Hawkins escaped further damage by getting another double play ball and then getting another ground out to end the frame.
Penn State took the lead back in the third inning as it got a pair of singles and a pair of walks after the first two outs had already been made to make it 3-1. Gaffney started things by drawing a two-out walk and he went all the way to third on an error on a failed pickoff attempt by OSU starter Jake Hale. He trotted home on Rob Yodice??s (Staten Island, N.Y.) RBI single to right. Blackburn then drew a walk and Yodice came home on Wine??s single to right. Hale did a good job after Wine??s hit, though, as he retired 10 of the final 11 batters he faced, allowing only a one-out triple to Gaffney in the fifth but he pitched around that, getting a ground ball out against the drawn-in infield and a foul out to end the inning.
Hawkins got through the first five innings without too much trouble aside from the unearned run in the second inning. He stranded a runner at third in the third, which was the only other runner to get beyond second base against him aside from the run that scored. In the sixth, however, he gave up a leadoff double to Fryer and was pulled in favor of Mike Lorentson (Springfield, Pa.), who came in and got Shuck to ground out to second, which sent Fryer to third. He then got a fly ball from Miller for a sacrifice fly that scored Fryer to cut the lead to 3-2 with two outs. Lorentson then gave up a single and a walk and was then replaced by O??Neil, making his second appearance of the day. He walked pinch hitter Ryan Drew to load the bases but then got Cory Kovanda to bounce out to Gaffney at short, who made a nifty scoop of the ball while charging it to escape with the lead still intact.
Hawkins ended his day having allowed five hits and two runs, only one earned in just his second career start. Gaffney went 2-for-2 with a pair of runs and was the only Nittany Lion with multiple hits in the second game as Hale limited the Lions to just four hits.
| Craig Clark improved to 5-4 by allowing just two runs in six inning in game one. |
In the seventh, he ran into a little trouble as he gave up a leadoff single by Jacob Howell and then after striking out Angle, walked Fryer. After a visit to the mound from pitching coach Jason Bell, O??Neil got Shuck to ground into a game-ending 4-6-3 double play on a 1-0 pitch to wrap up Penn State??s sixth straight win and his 10th save of the year.
Notes: Wine??s home run to lead off the fourth inning in the first game was the first Penn State home run hit into the bleachers in right field and just the second overall at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park??.Rick Marlin (Orlando, Fla.) had his career-long 12-game hitting streak stopped in the second game. The 12-gamer is the longest on the Nittany Lions this season??.The walk allowed by O??Neil in the first game with two outs in the inning was the first free pass he has issued since the April 4 game against Kent State. He had pitched 15.2 straight innings over his last nine appearances??.Gaffney now leads Penn State in home runs with five on the year, one ahead of Wine??s four??.The series win is the fifth Big Ten series win of the year for Penn State, which is the second-most in a single season in school history behind only the six conference series won in 1996??.The five, four-game series won this year is tied for the best mark ever, as five of those six series wins in 1996 were four-game series while one was a rain-shorted three-game series win??.Penn State has never swept Ohio State and will go for its first-ever sweep of the Buckeyes tomorrow.