April 1, 2009
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Kent State avenged last week's 9-2 loss to the Penn State baseball team with a 4-3 come-from-behind victory on Wednesday at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park.
Down three runs after three innings, Kent State (18-6 overall) tied the game with three runs in the fourth and scored the go-ahead run in the seventh. The Nittany Lions (15-11 overall) were unable to score upon the five Golden Flash relievers, leaving six runners on base.
Mike Deese (Roswell, Ga.) recorded all three of Penn State's RBIs. Deese bagged two doubles, one to each side of the field, in his first two at-bats and finished 3-for-4.
Kent State scored the winning run in the top of the seventh during Mike Pierce's (State College, Pa.) second inning of relief. David Lyon hit a blooper that lanced inches inside the right-field foul-line chalk for a double. With two outs, Ben Klafczynski grounded a ball up the middle that gave Landon Nakata (Honolulu, Hawai'i) trouble to score the fourth run.
Robert Sabo was the victor for the Golden Flashes. Justin Gill secured the save in the ninth.
Starting on a pitch count, Ryan Ignas (North Wales, Pa.) went three innings and allowed one hit while striking out two. Mike Franklin (Harleysville, Pa.) pitched an inning of scoreless baseball while Jesse Alfreno (Grove City, Pa.) fanned two in two innings.
A substitution at designated hitter, Ryan Boonie (State College, Pa.) reached base in all three at-bats. Boonie went 2-for-2 with a walk.
Penn State jumped to a three-run lead in the first three innings. In the first, Nakata fired a single up the middle. Deese scored the first run with a double that found a hole in right-center field.
Two innings later, Louie Picconi (North Merrick, N.Y.) beat out a jammed roller to shortstop to start the frame. Picconi swiped second and advanced to third on a hit by Blake Lynd (Deer Park, Texas). With a runner holding fort at third, Lynd stole his 13th base of the season to reach scoring position. Deese raked a ball that dented the wall in left center to score Picconi and Lynd. Kent State centerfielder Jared Humphreys marveled the crowd with a diving catch on a deep shot by Jordan Steranka (Pittsburgh, Pa.) to end the damage for the Golden Flashes.
Humphreys provided damage with his bat the next time up in the fourth inning. With runners on, Humphreys lined a ball up the middle to score two. Earlier in the top of the fourth, Winter hit a comebacker to Mike Lorentson (Springfield, Pa.), who couldn't quite get a glove on the ball to allow the first run of the inning.
Kent State let just four runners on in the final six innings. Penn State's biggest threat came in the eighth inning when Deese outhustled a grounder to short. Deese moved along to scoring position with an errant pickoff attempt by pitcher Jon Pokorny but was stranded at second when Pokorny forced a strikeout and a grounder to shortstop.
Penn State travels to Ann Arbor, Mich. to take on reigning Big Ten champion Michigan this weekend. Friday's game, scheduled for 4 p.m., will be aired live on the Big Ten Network.
GAME NOTES: Eighteen of Landon Nakata's 20 hits have been singles...Penn State leads the series with Kent State, 2-1...Louie Picconi ended his streak of errorless play in 2009. He safely made 65 putouts and assists so far from the middle infield this season...Penn State used six different pitchers...The loss is the first to a MAC school since the Nittany Lions fell to Central Michigan in 2006