April 20, 2008
University Park, Pa. - Penn State scored all of its runs in the first five innings, scoring at least one run in each of the first five frames, then held off a late Indiana charge against the Nittany Lion bullpen to pick up an 11-9 win over Indiana in the final game of the weekend series and the series sweep of the Hoosiers. The win also pulls Penn State to an even .500 in Big Ten play and in fifth place after starting the weekend in a tie for last place.
Seth Whitehill picked up his second straight win for the Nittany Lions with another solid performance. For the second straight Sunday, he pitched seven innings and allowed just two runs. He scattered five hits and struck out six while walking just one on just 72 pitches through his seven innings of work. Joe Blackburn went 2-for-3 and drove in three runs while Rob Yodice continued to raise his batting average by going 3-for-4 with an RBI. Ryan Boonie had two RBI while Rick Marlin went 2-for-4 with an RBI and scored two runs as well.
Penn State matched the inning number with its line in the first three innings, scoring one in the first, two in the second and three in the third. The Lions tacked on one in the fourth and then broke the game open with four in the fifth. That would be all of the scoring for the Nittany Lions on the day, as Indiana scored three in the eighth and four in the ninth off relievers David Lutz and Paul Cianciolo. The Hoosiers brought the tying run to the plate in the bottom of the ninth in the person of Ethan Wilson but Cianciolo induced a groundout to end the game with the go-ahead run in the on-deck circle.
Rob Yodice picked up his third three-hit game of the year, going 3-for-4 with a run and an RBI. |
Acting as a catalyst from the top of the order as he has been doing for the last two weeks, Wes Borden led off with a single up the middle in the bottom of the first, then stole second, went to third on a groundout and scored on a groundout by Blackburn.
The Nittany Lions took advantage of a throwing error by Indiana starter Chris McCombs and then got a two-run single from Boonie to make it a 3-0 advantage in the second. Cory Wine was hit by a pich to start the frame and he reached second when McCombs throw to second on an attempted sacrifice by Marlin pulled the shortstop off the bag. A wild pitch moved both runners up and Boonie followed with his single to left center. A hit batsman and a walk to lead off the third inning got Whitehill into trouble, as Andrew Means loaded the bases by beating out a bunt for an infield single. But Whitehill limited the damage as he got Evan Crawford to fly out for a sacrifice fly, then got another fly out before giving up an RBI single to Kipp Schutz and then getting Chris Hervey to fly out and strand runners on second and third. Hervey would be the first of seven straight batters that Whitehill would set down and a string of nine of 10 set down through the end of the sixth inning.
Penn State answered right back in the bottom of the third to extend the one-run lead back to four runs with a three-run inning. Blackburn drew a walk to lead off and went to third when Crawford tried to force him at second on Yodice's grounder in the hole between first and second, putting runners at the corners. Brian Ernst followed with an RBI single to left center. Cory Wine then laid down his first sacrifice bunt of the year to advance the runners to second and third and Marlin followed with a two-run single through the left side.
Borden once again proved to be a catalyst in the fourth inning as he drew a one-out walk, stole second despite Indiana pitching out, and one out later, scored on Blackburn's single up the middle to make it 7-2.
Joe Blackburn had three RBI and went 2-for-3. |
McCombs left after just four innings and was relieved by Joe Vicini to start the fifth. The Nittany Lions batted around in the fifth and took an 11-2 lead. Wine started things with a double to center and was followed by a single to center by Marlin. Boonie walked to load the bases and Lou Picconi followed with a solid single to right to score one. Eric Arnett relieved Vicini and got Borden to line out to third, but Landon Nakata reached on a fielder's choice to push across one more run and Blackburn and Yodice followed with consecutive RBI singles to push across the final two Penn State runs.
Whitehill gave up two straight singles to start the seventh but retired the next three hitters to end his day. Lutz relieved him to start the eighth and gave up three runs on four hits and a walk as the Hoosiers cut the lead to a still comfortable 11-5 margin.
It was deuces wild for Rick Marlin, who knocked in two, scored two and had two hits. |
Paul Cianciolo made his first appearance of the weekend to start the ninth and gave up an infield hit to Means to start the inning. Nakata made a nice diving play going to his right to stab the ball but Means was too fast to throw him out. Means then went to second on a pickoff attempt that went down the first base line and then came home when Borden had a ball go right under his glove and down the left field line off the bat of David Trager. A wild pitch and another single, this one off the bat of Dylan Swift, put runners at the corners. Cianciolo got Schutz to fly out to center for the first out, which scored Trager but then gave up a double down the left field line to Hervey that went off the glove of a diving Borden at third, putting runners at second and third. Swift came home on a groundout by Jerrud Sabourin for the second out of the inning but Michael Early then doubled to the gap in left center to plate Hervey and bring the tying run to the plate. With the sky opening and a dark rain cloud hovering over the stadium, Cianciolo got Wilson to ground out to short to end the game.
Penn State will play two midweek home games this week. The Lions will take on LaSalle at 6:35 p.m. on Tuesday and will face Youngstown State at 5:35 p.m. on Wednesday.
Notes: The game was delayed by 58 minutes at the start due to rain. A steady rain fell during some of the earlier innings but the rest of the game, with the exception of the final few outs in the bottom of the ninth, was played without any precipitation....The Nittany Lions have now scored 10 or more runs in each of their last three Big Ten Sunday series finales. They have scored a combined total of 34 runs in their last three Sunday games....Borden now has a team-high nine-game hitting streak....Marlin has now hit in eight straight games....Borden is hitting .406 during his hitting streak and has raised his average 64 points in that span....Marlin has raised his average by 53 points in his last 10 games all the way up to .297....Marlin also hit .538 in the series while Yodice had a big weekend as well, hitting .500 (6-for-12)....Penn State made just three errors in the series, all in today's game....This weekend marks Penn State's first-ever series sweep of Indiana. The Nittany Lions had won five series from the Hoosiers before but had never swept them....Penn State has now swept six of the other nine Big Ten teams in its Big Ten history. The only teams that the Nittany Lions have never swept are Minnesota, Ohio State and Purdue.