May 16, 2008
Minneapolis, Minn. - Penn State, which had clinched a berth in the Big Ten Tournament before it even took the field on Friday afternoon for the first game of its doubleheader with Minnesota, kept itself alive for third place in the Big Ten with a 5-3 win over Minnesota in game one. T.J. Macy picked up his fourth win of the year with six solid innings and Drew O'Neil picked up his 10th save of the year to lead the Nittany Lions.
By virtue of Michigan State's loss to Indiana in the first game of those teams' doubleheader on Friday, the Nittany Lions wrapped up their Big Ten Tournament berth before even setting foot on the field. The Nittany Lions now have a realistic shot at third place and the No. 3 seed in the conference tournament if it can win its final two games and get a little help.
Penn State's third through seventh hitters each drove in one run apiece while Joe Blackburn, Brian Ernst and Cory Wine each went 2-for-4. Eight of the nine hitters in the Penn State lineup recorded at least one hit while Rob Yodice scored a pair of runs, one on his sixth home run of the year. Macy tossed six innings, allowing six hits, four of which came in the first two innings when Minnesota scored all three of its runs, and struck out two while only walking one.
Contrary to last night's game, the Nittany Lions were the ones that jumped ahead this time as they scored a pair of runs in the first after the first two outs had been made to go up 2-0. Blackburn started things with a two-out single. Yodice drew a walk and Ernst followed with a single up the middle to plate Blackburn. Wine then dumped a ball off the end of the bat and into short left field and Yodice beat the throw home as the throw as off line.
 Joe Blackburn had an RBI and went 2-for-4.  | |
However, after jumping out to the early lead, Penn State was unable to hold it for long as the Gophers scored one in the first and two in the second as they put together a two-out rally of their own. In the first, Matt Nohelty chopped a ball through the left side for a leadoff single, went to second on a groundout, took third on a wild pitch, and scored on a one-out groundout by Jeff DeSmidt. In the second, after Macy had gotten the first two outs, he gave up another single that was chopped past the infield, this one up the middle to Kyle Knudson. Jeremy Chlan then hit a deep fly ball to left center that the wind carried over the short fence beyond the 360 sign to give the Gophers a 3-2 lead.
Much like Penn State's early lead, however, Minnesota's lead did not last long as the Nittany Lions answered right back in the top of the third with a pair of runs. With one out, Yodice drove a ball to left center to roughly the same spot as Chlan's home run and it carried over the fence for his sixth home run of the season, tying him with Wine for the team lead and tying the game 3-3. Ernst followed with his second single of the game, this one to right. He stole second and went to third when the throw went into center field and then scored on Rick Marlin's two-out single to give Penn State a 4-3 lead.
The Nittany Lions extended it to a 5-3 lead with another run in the fourth inning as they manufactured a run. Lou Picconi led off with a single through the left side and was sacrificed to second by Wes Borden. Landon Nakata then drew a walk and Blackburn followed with his second single of the day, this one down the left field line to bring in Picconi.
 Drew O'Neil picked up save No. 10 on the year. | |
Macy settled down after the second inning and retired 11 of the next 14 hitters he would face after the second inning. He gave up only a two-out single in the fourth and a two-out double in the sixth and also allowed one hitter to reach on an error in the fifth but he was erased by an inning-ending double play.
O'Neil issued a leadoff walk to Chlan to start the seventh but he was erased on a fielder's choice grounder off the bat of Nohelty that he just beat out at first. On the first pitch to Decker, Nohelty took for second but a perfect throw by Blackburn to Picconi cut down the speedy Nohelty for just the eighth time all year. O'Neil then got Decker to ground out to end the game.
Notes: O'Neil is now just one save shy of tying his school record of 11 from last year....O'Neil also extended his streak without allowing an earned run to 17 straight appearances and 18.2 straight innings....Interestingly, the first hitter O'Neil faced, Jeremy Chlan, was the last hitter to get an extra base hit off him, that coming in last year's Big Ten Tournament....Yodice's home run gave the Nittany Lions their 26th of the year, the most in a single season under head coach Robbie Wine....Ernst has now hit in six straight games and in 18 of his last 19 games. He has also now reached base safely in 19 straight games....He also has RBI in six straight games....Macy now has recorded decisions in all six of his starts this year....With the win, the Nittany Lions now need Purdue to sweep Illinois and Ohio State to lose two more games to Iowa in order to clinch third place without winning any more games this weekend. If the Nittany Lions win one more game, they need Purdue to win three games and for Ohio State to lose one more game to get third.