April 18, 2008
Coach Bell on the radio postgame show (mp3)
University Park, Pa. - Rick Marlin drove in three runs and Ryan Stobart turned in his fifth straight quality start with a 7.1-inning performance and Drew O'Neil picked up his seventh save of the year to close out the game as Penn State won its first Big Ten series opener of the year with a 7-3 win over Indiana on Friday night before a season-high 2,596 fans, the second-largest crowd to ever watch a Penn State baseball game.
Stobart scattered 11 hits but gave up just the three runs, all earned. He walked two and struck out five as he pitched his way out of a couple of jams with only limited damage. O'Neil came on with runners on second and third with only one out in the eighth and escaped the jam without any runs scoring and faced the minimum five batters in his 1.2-inning save.
Brian Ernst went 2-for-4 with two runs scored to lead the Nittany Lion offense along with Marlin as six Nittany Lions recorded hits and five tallied an RBI. A four-run fifth inning, partially made possible by a pair of Indiana errors and prolonged by a couple of RBI singles, extended a 2-1 Penn State lead to 6-1 and with Stobart's and O'Neil's on the hill, put the game out of reach.
Drew O'Neil picked up his seventh save in as many chances. |
After Stobart struck out the first batter of the game, the Hoosiers notched one run off him in the top of the first inning on a Josh Phegley double, which drove in Tyler Rogers from first, who had walked. But Stobart recovered to get a pair of ground balls to strand Phegley at third.
It remained 1-0 until the fourth when Joe Blackburn led off the inning with a scorcher that whizzed right by Indiana starter Matt Bashore's face. Ernst advanced him to second with a groundball single through the right side of the infield. Rob Yodice then blooped a single to shallow centerfield that scored Blackburn and moved Ernst to third. A softly hit groundout to first by Marlin drove in Ernst and gave Penn State a 2-1 lead.
The Nittany Lions batted around in the fifth, adding four more to their lead. Lou Picconi stole second after reaching first base on an error. After Wes Borden walked, Landon Nakata knocked a base hit up the middle to score Picconi. A Blackburn grounder was mishandled by the shortstop as Borden crossed the plate, leaving runners on first and second with no outs. After a strikeout, Ernst grounded into a fielder's choice, and Yodice walked to load the bases with two outs for Marlin, who singled through the left side to drive in two runs and swell Penn State's lead to 6-1.
Indiana added a run in the sixth and another in the seventh, cutting the Penn State lead to 6-3. Phegley was hit by a pitch to begin the sixth inning and scored after Kipp Schutz and Chris Hervey hit a pair of singles. Ethan Wilson commenced the seventh inning with a base hit. After grounding into a fielder's choice and displacing Wilson at first base, Andrew Means stole his 22nd base of the season and scored when Phegely drove a single to rightfield.
Stobart got the first out in the eighth inning before walking Hervey and allowing a double down the third baseline to Wes Wilson. O'Neil came in at that point and got a little dribbler hit back to him on the mound by Evan Crawford for the second out as he held the other runners and then got Ethan Wilson to fly out to center to end the inning and hold the three-run lead.
Rick Marlin drove in a season-high three runs. |
In the bottom of the eighth, Ryan Boonie hit a nubber back to relief pitcher Joey O'Gara, who overthrew first base, allowing Boonie to go all the way to third. He scored on a Picconi sacrifice fly to center to extend the lead to 7-3.
In the ninth, O'Neil walked the first batter, but struck out the next and forced Phegley to ground into a game-ending 1-6-3 double play to pick up his seventh save in as many opportunities this season.
The Nittany Lions take on the Hoosiers in a double-header Saturday beginning at 4:35 p.m. at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park. Another postgame fireworks show is planned for after the second game of the twinbill.
Notes: Ernst tallied his 200th career hit on his infield single in the second inning....He has 201 career hits now and needs just 12 more to move into sixth place on the all-time hits list at Penn State....Cory Wine's nine-game hitting streak was snapped....Nakata has now reached base safely in 14 of his last 16 games and has drawn at least one walk in eight of his last 10 games.