March 16, 2008
Lantana, Fla. - Penn State scored an unearned run in the top of the fourth inning but Cornell scored four unanswered runs, three of which were unearned, in the next two innings, and despite two scoreless innings of relief from Paul Hawkins, the Nittany Lions were unable to score any more runs for the rest of the game as all of the scoring was done by both teams in the fourth and fifth innings in a 4-1 loss to Cornell on Sunday morning. The loss wraps up the spring break trip for the Nittany Lions, who will return home and open their home schedule on Friday against Lehigh.
Penn State committed a season-high six errors and stranded 11 runners on base. Each team had only six hits apiece. Cornell's Cory Pappel pitched 6.2 innings, allowing just the one unearned run. He walked four and struck out three but pitched out of every jam the Nittany Lions got him into.
In the first, Penn State put runners at first and second with no outs and runners on the corners with one out but were unable to score. In the second, an infield hit and a Cornell error helped put runners at first and second with no outs. But a strikeout-throw out double play followed by a groundout ended any threat there and in the third, an inning-ending double play was grounded into by Brian Ernst with one out.
Despite being unable to score in the first three innings, for the second straight game, Penn State drew first blood. After putting its leadoff hitter on in each of the first three innings, the Nittany Lions were finally able to capitalize with a leadoff man reaching base in the fourth as Rob Yodice doubled down the right field line, went to third on a groundout, and with two outs, scored when Ben Heath's grounder to third could not be handled by third baseman Nathan Ford.
Another error at third base, this one by the Nittany Lions, helped Cornell take the lead 3-1 in the bottom of the fourth. One run was earned while the other two were unearned in the inning. Things started with a one-out walk to Ford. Mickey Brodsky then chopped a ball down to third that Jack Greenberg fielded but bobbled, putting runners on first and second. Jimmy Heinz then picked up the first hit of the day for the Big Red, a single through the left side to load the bases. Kyle Groth then delivered a two-run single through the right side to put Cornell up 2-1 and Kaleb Hutchinson then grounded out to second to drive in another run as Wes Borden made a nice play going to his left to save a hit and get an out.
The Big Red added another unearned run in the fifth, taking advantage of another Penn State error to go up 4-1. Adam Jacobs started the inning with a single through the right side and he reached second when Borden dropped a throw to second by Nakata on Domenic Di Ricco's grounder to short. Another fielder's choice grounder put runners at the corners with one out and Jacobs scored when a pickoff throw to first got just far enough away from Cory Wine that Jacobs was able to race home and slid in safely just under the tag of Yodice.
In the bottom of the fifth, Penn State loaded the bases with two outs on an error, a fielder's choice, a single up the middle by Ernst and a hit by pitch by Yodice, but Wine flew out to center to end the threat.
In the seventh, with Pappel's pitch count mounting, Borden drew a one-out walk, which was followed by a single through the right side by Landon Nakata. After a groundout to second, Yodice drew a walk to load the bases, bringing Wine to the plate again with the bases loaded. Reliever Walker Yoma entered to face Wine and Wine got into a 2-1 pitch and drove it deep to center but not deep enough as it was caught just in front of the warning track for the third out. Penn State got just one more baserunner in the final two innings off of Toma, a pinch hit single by Joe Blackburn in the eighth.
Mike Wanamaker pitched decently for the Nittany Lions as he went six innings and gave up just three hits and just the one earned run, walking three and striking out two. But he was victimized by the errors that led to three unearned runs. Hawkins pitched solidly in two scoreless innings, the seventh and eighth, giving up three hits and striking out one. He did not walk any.
Penn State will now return home from their spring break trip and focus on next weekend's first home series of the year against Lehigh. Friday's home opener will begin at 3:35 p.m. at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park.