March 7, 2008
First Half of Florida Spring Break Trip Game Notes (pdf)
University Park, Pa. - The Penn State baseball team will depart on Saturday for its annual spring break trip, which this year takes the Nittany Lions to Palm Beach County, Fla. for eight games in eight days over the next week.
Seven of the eight games will be a part of the Papa John's Palm Beach Challenge held at the Santaluces Sports Complex in Lantana, Fla., the old minor league training complex of the Montreal Expos. The other game will be a Tuesday night game at Miami in Coral Gables, Fla.
To start out the trip, Penn State will play five games in four days beginning on Sunday with a 3:15 p.m. matchup with Air Force. The game will mark the first-ever meeting between Penn State and U.S. Air Force Academy. While that game will be Penn State's first in Florida, it will be Air Force's last, as the Falcons will be playing doubleheaders on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The Falcons enter this weekend's games with a 2-4 record.
On Monday, the Nittany Lions will play a 4:00 p.m. game against Monmouth as they will meet up with Hawks for the second time in school history. Monmouth started its season 1-2 with a series at East Carolina last weekend and will play at Central Florida this weekend before taking on Penn State. This will mark the fourth straight year that Penn State has played a team from the Northeast Conference. Penn State topped the Hawks in the only other previous meeting between the schools in 2005 in Fresno, Calif. on their spring break trip. In 2006, Penn State topped Sacred Heart in Clearwater, Fla. while last year, the Nittany Lions opened up Medlar Field at Lubrano Park with a three-game series against Central Connecticut. Monmouth is the defending NEC champions.
Tuesday will be a busy day for the Lions as they will take on UConn at 11:00 a.m. before heading down the Florida coast to take on Miami in a 7:00 p.m. night game. The 'Canes are ranked anywhere from second through 16th by the five major polls this week. The Hurricanes are 6-1 entering their first ACC series of the year against Boston College this weekend.
The Lions will take on UConn against on Wednesday night at 7:00 p.m. The Huskies are currently 0-6 on the year entering this weekend's games, which will see them play Air Force, Ohio State and Penn at the Palm Beach Challenge prior to taking on Penn State. Despite the two schools relative geographic proximity, Penn State and UConn have only played twice before, one meeting coming in the 1959 College World Series and the other in 1992, which was also part of a spring break trip.
Thursday will be off-day before the Nits play three more games next weekend before heading back home.
GoPSUsports.com is your exclusive home for coverage of the Nittany Lions' spring break trip. Be sure to check back to GoPSUsports.com for recaps, game previews and postgame podcast interviews throughout the trip to Florida.