| Drew O'Neil picked up his fourth win of the year with 2.1 innings of relief. |
ANN ARBOR, Mich.; May 25, 2007 ?C Michigan took advantage of a Penn State error and a gift single that was the result of a bad infield hop in the bottom of the ninth inning to score three runs and tie the game against Drew O??Neil(Roswell, Ga.), who gave up his first runs against a Big Ten team this year. But, in the top of the tenth, Penn State answered right back as Cory Wine (Stillwater, Okla.) drilled his fifth home run of the year, a line shot over the wall in right field and O??Neil set down the side in the bottom of the tenth as Penn State rebounded to defeat and knock out top-seeded Michigan from the Big Ten Tournament on Friday afternoon.
The win is Penn State??s fourth over the Wolverines in five tries this year, all at Ray Fisher Stadium. The win is also the fifth win over a ranked team this year. It also improves the Nittany Lions?? overall record to 30-25, the first time Penn State has won 30 games since the 2000 season, in which it won 45.
Wine went 2-for-5 with a trio of RBI and also recorded a career-high 18 putouts in the field. Mike Deese (Roswell, Ga.) drove in two runs while both Matt Cavagnaro (Brightwaters, N.Y.) and Garrett Field (Stillwater, Okla.) each recorded a pair of hits as the Nittany Lions made Michigan starter Mike Wilson throw a lot of pitches early, which led to him lasting just five and a third innings while allowing nine hits and five runs, only three of which were earned.
Paul Hawkins (Glen Hope, Pa.) turned in his third straight solid performance in a starting role for the Nittany Lions. Starting just his third game of the year, he went five innings, which once again tied a career high, and allowed just two runs and six hits. He left as the pitcher of record on the winning side but got a no decision. Matt Ogrodnik (Saltsburg, Pa.) was impressive in relief as well, pitching two and two-thirds innings, allowing four hits. O??Neil threw two and a third innings and allowed four hits and three runs, but none of those were earned. While his 19.2-inning scoreless streak ended, he has still not allowed any earned runs against Big Ten teams and has not allowed any earned runs in his last 25 innings. He picked up the win by setting down Michigan in the bottom of the tenth to improve to 4-1 on the year.
| Garrett Field had an RBI triple and went 2-for-4. |
For the first time in the Big Ten Tournament, Penn State managed to score first as the Nittany Lions strung together some hits and took advantage of a Michigan miscue to push across two in the first inning. Cavagnaro and Scott Gaffney (Westbury, N.Y.) singled to start the inning and were both moved up to second and third on Rob Yodice??s (Staten Island, N.Y.) sacrifice bunt. Joe Blackburn (Sinking Spring, Pa.) then struck out but after catcher Doug Pickens didn??t catch the third strike, his throw to first was dropped by Nate Recknagel, loading the bases. After the second out, Deese delivered a clutch two-out, two-run single to left to put Penn State up 2-0.
The Wolverines were kept off-balance by Hawkins through the first three inning, getting a leadoff runner on in two of the first three frames but failing to score as Hawkins worked his way through the dangerous Michigan lineup without allowing any damage. In the fourth, Recknagel and Zach Putnam got two singles, which were not hit that hard, to begin the inning. They each advanced a base on a soft grounder out by Adam Abraham. Recknagel then scored on another groundout and Putnam later came home on a solid single to center by Derek VanBuskirk to tie the score 2-2.
Penn State immediately answered in the top of the fifth, getting another clutch two-out hit, this time by Wine, who for the second straight day, hit a two-run triple, his fourth three-bagger of the year. The inning started with Cavagnaro??s second hit of the day, a solid single through the left side. He was moved over to second by Gaffney for his 17th sacrifice of the year as he continues to extend his single-season school record. Wilson got Yodice to fly out for the second out and then Michigan elected intentionally walk Penn State??s leading hitter, Blackburn, to face Wine. The Nittany Lion first baseman worked the count to 3-1 before lining a wicked shot down the right field line to score Cavagnaro and Blackburn and making the Wolverines pay for walking Blackburn.
Hawkins escaped another small jam in the fifth as he gave up a two-out single to Eric Rose, who then stole second, but Recknagel grounded out to first to end the inning.
| Matt Cavagnaro went 2-for-5 and scored two runs and is now 7-for-14 in the first three games of the Big Ten Tournament. |
Following Hawkins?? last batter of the game, Penn State added one more insurance run in the top of the sixth and knocked Wilson out of the game. Rick Marlin (Orlando, Fla.) led off with a single down the left field line and Brian Ernst (Boyertown, Pa.) laid down the third Penn State sacrifice bunt of the game to move Marlin over the second. Field then grounded a rocket down the line in right field that easily scored Marlin for a 5-2 Penn State lead. Field tripped about halfway between first and second base but despite that, still legged out a triple, his first of the year. That knocked Wilson out of the game, and reliever Michael Powers came on and stranded Field at third by striking out the next two hitters to end the inning.
Ogrodnik came on and worked his way in and out of trouble in the seventh and the beginning of the eighth. He got a double play ball after allowing the leadoff man to reach in the seventh and then allowed a leadoff single to Recknagel in the eighth before getting the next two batters out. O??Neil came on and needed just one pitch to retire the side.
In the Michigan ninth, VanBuskirk led off with a single and then Gaffney had a grounder by Kevin Cislo go through his legs for an error, putting runners at first and second with no outs. A wild pitch moved up both runners and then a grounder to first by Brad Roblin scored VanBuskirk to make it 5-3. Another groundout by Jason Christian made the second out of the inning but scored Cislo to cut the lead to 5-4. O??Neil then got Rose to ground a ball to Gaffney at short but the ball took a bad hop and hopped right over Gaffney??s head for a gift single. Another single by Recknagel moved Rose to third and then Putnam drove in the tying run with a single, which also sent the winning run to second. But O??Neil got the dangerous Abraham to fly out to Field in center to send the game to extra innings.
In the tenth, Powers set down the first two hitters of the inning, which gave him 13 straight hitters set down since he entered the game in the sixth in relief of Wilson. However, he gave up his only hit, which was also his only baserunners of the game, as Wine drilled a 3-2 pitch to right that just barely cleared the wall, giving Penn State the 6-5 lead.
In the bottom of the tenth, O??Neil bore down, pitching around another Penn State error by striking out one and then getting a pair of groundouts to end the game and send the Nittany Lions onto another elimination game beginning at 3:35 p.m. against Illinois.
Penn State, which has now eliminated both Iowa and the top-seeded Wolverines from the Big Ten Tournament, will look to eliminate the third team in the Fightling Illini. The game will mark the first meeting between the Nittany Lions and Illinois since the 2005 season.
Notes: Yodice laid down his first sacrifice bunt of the year in the first inning??.Field??s sixth-inning triple was the first of his career. He also has two career home runs. The triple and one of the home runs have now come against Michigan??.Ogrodnik made his 27th appearance of the season, just one shy of tying his own school record of 28 set last year??.Cavagnaro committed an error in the tenth inning, ending a most-impressive streak of 125 straight chances without an error. He still has just five errors on the season, which is generally thought to be outstanding for a middle infielder??.Penn State improved its all-time record against Michigan in the Big Ten Tournament to 3-1??.Despite their untimely miscues in the late innings, both Gaffney and Cavagnaro played outstanding games in the middle infield, taking away several potential Michigan hits throughout the game. Gaffney recorded eight assists, just one off his career high, while Cavagnaro had seven??.With his career high 18 putouts, Wine became the first player in Penn State history to record over 500 putouts in a single season, running his total 502, and he also moved into fourth place on the all-time putout list at Penn State and now has 921 career putouts.