Feb. 24, 2012
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Following a rain delay that lasted one hour and 31 minutes, the Penn State baseball team (1-3) suffered a 10-7 loss to the UNC Greensboro (UNCG) Spartans on Friday night. The Nittany Lions trailed 6-5 in the seventh, but a tough bottom half of the inning resulting in four Spartan runs created the separation.
After a long wait with the rain delay, the Nittany Lions got on the board in the first inning. Junior Elliot Searer (Lewistown, Pa.) worked a one out walk to give Penn State a base runner. Following a fielder's choice groundout, senior Joey DeBernardis (Lake Zurich, Ill.) crushed a two-run homer over the left field fence to give the Nittany Lions a 2-0 lead after one.
In the bottom of the second, Nittany Lion starter Cody Lewis (Laguna Niguel, Calif.) forced a leadoff groundout to Montesinos at second, who made a nice diving play to his left side. The junior right hander then punched out two-straight batters to blank the Spartans in the second. He then continued his strikeout streak in the third inning, getting the first guy swinging. However, the Spartans strung together four-straight hits and took a 3-2 lead.
After a quiet top of the fourth inning for the Nittany Lions, the Spartans came back with a big bottom half to increase its lead to 6-2. Lewis, who struck out four batters on the day, was relieved by junior Neal Herring (West Chester, Pa.) with two outs in the inning.
Eric Kalbfleisch came in to relieve UNCG's starter Tyler Hollstegge, who threw a solid five innings. The Nittany Lion lineup took advantage, as DeBernardis led off with a double, his second extra-base hit of the game. Freshman JJ White (Lansdowne, Pa.) and junior Ryan Clark (Westerville, Ohio) each forced walks to load the bases with two outs. Sophomore Zach Ell (Plains, Pa.) delivered a big two-run single to cut the Spartan lead to 6-4. Clark then scored on a failed pick-off attempt, making the score 6-5 UNCG after the top half of the sixth.
Herring was very solid in relief. In the sixth inning notably, he struck out two batters. With two outs and a runner on first, the Spartans' Thomas Troelstrup hit a blooping single to left field. Bobby Martin, the runner that was on first during the play, rounded third a bit too far, as Searer fired a throw in to DeBernardis, who tagged Martin out as he slid back into third. The Nittany Lions escaped the minor jam.
Penn State had a very tough bottom half of the seventh inning. UNCG scored four runs on just one hit and four Nittany Lion errors, to up the Spartan lead to 10-5. Penn State responded in the top of the eighth, as Clark doubled with one out and set up an Ell RBI single to make the score 10-6. Then in the bottom of the ninth, junior Luis Montesinos (Miami, Fla.) drove in senior Jordan Steranka (Pittsburgh, Pa.) on a base hit to decrease the UNCG lead to 10-7. The Nittany Lions were unable to creep any closer though.
Penn State looks to rebound tomorrow, as it will take on the Spartans for the second contest of a three-game set at 1 p.m. Junior John Walter (Haddonfield, N.J.) is expected to make the start on the mound for the Nittany Lions.
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