April 26, 2008
Champaign, Ill. - Illinois scored in six of its eight innings at bat and answered Penn State's runs in all innings except for one as the Illini defeated the Nittany Lions 20-11 in the opening game of the series that was started on Friday and completed on Saturday afternoon. The game was suspended with two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning due to heavy rain and thunderstorms on Friday night and was completed on Saturday afternoon prior to the teams' regularly scheduled doubleheader.
Penn State pounded out 17 hits, tied for the second-most in a game this year, including five extra base hits and two home runs. However, the pitching staff was unable to quiet the Illini offense as Illinois pounded out 26 hits, including 10 doubles and three triples. Ryan Stobart last 5.1 innings and allowed career highs in hits (14) and runs (11, nine earned). Paul Hawkins relieved him and went 1.1 innings, allowing eight hits and five runs while David Lutz finished off the game, pitching on both Friday and Saturday, allowing four hits and four run.
For the Nittany Lions, Wes Borden extended his hitting streak to 12 games by going 2-for-4 with two runs. Rob Yodice drove in three runs and went 3-for-4 with a three-run home run. Cory Wine also homered and went 3-for-5 while Brian Ernst and Rick Marlin each went 2-for-5. Lou Picconi went 2-for-4 with a pair of RBI. Kevin Manson did not have a great outing for the Illini on the mound, allowing 12 hits and nine runs, but picked up the win on the strength of his run support.
Borden wasted little time in extending his hitting streak as he lined a double to left center to leadoff the game. He went to third on a groundout and came home on Joe Blackburn's sacrifice fly.
Lou Picconi knocked in two runs and went 2-for-4. |
That lead was short-lived, however, as the Illini got a bases-clearing double off the bat of Daniel Webb to take a 3-1 lead. Illinois had loaded the bases on a pair of walks and an infield hit on a hit-and-run play in between the first two outs of the inning.
Penn State cut the lead to 3-2 in the second as it got a solo home run off the bat of Wine to deep center field. However, the Illini answered once, this time scoring four runs to take a 7-2 lead. Joe Bonadonna and Brandon Wikoff delivered back-to-back doubles with Bonadonna's scoring two and Wikoff scored on a groundout. The inning was extended by an error that Nick Stockwell reached on to begin the inning.
The Nittany Lions scored another single run in the top of the third as they manufactured a run to cut the lead to 7-3. Picconi led off with a single, was sacrificed to second by Borden and scored on Landon Nakata's single. The third would the only inning of the game, however, that Illinois did not score in the bottom of the inning following the Nittany Lions scoring in the top half of the frame.
While the Lions kept it closer by keeping the Illini off the scoreboard in the third and fourth innings, they were unable to score themselves again until the sixth and Illinois pushed across two more runs in the bottom of the fifth. John Schlichter led off with a triple to center and one out later, scored on a double by Casey McMurray, who later trotted home on a single by Bonadonna.
Rick Marlin went 2-for-5 and knocked in a pair. |
A couple of hits strung together by the Nittany Lions in the sixth kept them in the game as they cut the lead back to just three runs. Blackburn walked to lead off and Yodice was hit by a pitch. Ernst followed with a double down the left field line to scored Blackburn and one out later, Marlin singled in both Ernst and Yodice. But Marlin was caught stealing and Ryan Boonie grounded out to end the threat of any more run scoring.
Back-to-back one-out singles by the Illini to begin the bottom of the sixth resulted in the end of the day for Stobart. Hawkins came on and gave up a two-run double to Schlichter and after striking out Stockwell for the second out, gave up an RBI single to McMurray.
The Nittany Lions kept themselves in the game by scoring three more runs in the seventh to cut the lead back to three runs at 12-9. Borden picked up his second hit of the day with a one-out single and Blackburn lined a ball off Hanson with two outs to put runners at the corners. Yodice then lifted his fourth home run of the year down the left field line, his first opposite field home run of his Penn State career.
But that smaller deficit would be short-lived as well as the Illini came back in the bottom of the seventh and scored four more runs as they rapped out three doubles and a triple in the inning. Penn State came back with two in the top of the eighth as Picconi drove in both with a two-run single but a double play killed any chance the Lions had of scoring further.
In the bottom of the eighth, after Lutz had recorded the first two outs of the frame, the rain and lighting came and after a rain delay of over two hours, the game was officially suspended until Saturday. Lutz came back to the mound to finished the eighth inning on Saturday but before he could get the final out of the inning, gave up four more runs as Schlichter hit a big two-run triple in the inning and then trotted home for the 20th run of the game on Stockwell's single before Lutz retired the final batter.
The first game of the regularly scheduled doubleheader was to begin 30 minutes after the conclusion of the suspended game.
Notes: Borden's 12-game hitting streak equals the longest of any Nittany Lion from last year, which was by Marlin....Penn State gave up 20 runs for the first time since May 8, 2005 vs. Ohio State, when it gave up 29....This was only the second time under head coach Robbie Wine that the Nittany Lions gave up 20 runs....The 17 hits were tied for the second-most the Nittany Lions have had all year. They also had 17 against Purdue two weekends ago in the series finale.