April 11, 2009
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Trailing in the eighth inning, Penn State piled on four runs in the bottom of the eighth inning en route to its 14th come-from-behind victory of the season, defeating Purdue, 11-9, in front of 1,516 fans on Saturday at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park.
Penn State was guided by Rick Marlin, who had a pair of two-RBI doubles, and Cory Wine's two home runs.
Paul Cianciolo notched his third victory of the season in relief. Cianciolo went four strong, allowing two earned runs on two hits. Ryan Ignas tabbed his third save of the season.
Penn State used a four-run eighth inning to take its first lead since being up 1-0 in the second. Wine ignited the offense with a solo shot over the 375 marker in right-center. Jordan Steranka followed with a single that found a hole at second. Ryan Boonie placed one of his three singles on the game to make way for Marlin, who tattooed the ball to left-center to score the go-ahead run. Louie Picconi added an insurance run with the first triple of his career.
The Nittany Lions had a total of four players who had three-hit games. Wine, Steranka, Boonie and Marlin each had a trio of safeties. Marlin had four RBIs, and Wine had two RBIs with two solo round-trippers. Steranka scored three times on the game.
The four-through-nine hitters in the lineup batted a collective .593 clip (16-for-27). All nine spots in the lineup tallied a hit - seven of whom had multi-hit games.
Penn State out-hit the Boilermakers, 20-11. It marks the third time this season that the Nittany Lions spotted 20 hits on the scoreboard.
On top of his three hits and four RBIs, Marlin became the first Nittany Lion since Scott Kelley in 2007 to have multiple assists from the outfield. Marlin ended the game by gunning down a runner at first for a double play and shot down a Boilermaker attempt to advance a single into a two-bagger.
Steranka initiated the scoring in the second inning, extending his hitting streak to 15 games with a single. Moved along by a sacrifice bunt by Boonie and a Marlin single, Ben Heath hit a ball to center that made it an early 1-0 lead for Penn State.
Purdue made a big splash with three runs in both the third and fourth frames. The Boilermakers took advantage of walks, forcing starter Calvin Grumley into deep counts, and brought two to the plate with a single to center by David Blount. Drew Madia scheduled in the third run. Alex Jaffee, who began the third with a lead-off single, followed suite to reach in the fourth. Brandon Haveman sailed a Grumley pitch into rightfield for a two-run dinger. Blount lined a single to score the sixth run in two innings but ended the inning when Marlin stalled him at second. Marlin's outfield assist kept the score at 6-2.
Penn State kept itself in the ballgame during the third and fourth innings, owning a run apiece to ease the damage caused during the visitor's at-bats. Mike Deese singled, stole a base and scored on a Boonie grounder to the weak side of second. A lead-off walk to Heath yielded one run when Landon Nakata pierced a pitch down the right line.
Down 7-3 in the fifth, the Nittany Nine had their first four hitters collect hits and put runs on the board. Wine hit just the second Nittany Lion home run in 11 games at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park. Boonie stole a base after he and Steranka recorded back-to-back singles. Marlin cleared the bases with a thunderous slug to the left-center nook. Marlin eventually tied the game when a Blake Lynd grounder took an unorthodox hop past the shortstop.
GAME NOTES: Jordan Steranka extended his hitting streak to 15 games...Cory Wine had his second career two-home run game