March 28, 2012
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Penn State baseball (7-16) picked up two wins on Wednesday afternoon over the Coppin State Eagles by scores of 6-2 and 7-1. Senior Mike Franklin (Harleysville, Pa.) and freshman Patton Taylor (Nichols, N.Y.) each picked up wins on the mound. The win for Taylor was the first of his career.
Some highlights on the day included homeruns from the catchers. In game one, freshman JC Coban (Boca Raton, Fla.) hit his second homerun of the season to expand Penn State's lead to 5-2 in the seventh. Coban launched a ball that hit the right field foul pole. In game two, sophomore Alex Farkes (Boston, Mass.) hit his first career homerun in the fifth inning to give Penn State a 7-1 lead. The second game was a shortened to seven innings.
Other notables from Wednesday included a 1-for-2 day for freshman Taylor Skerpon (Sayre, Pa.), who earned his first career hit and first career RBIs. With two outs in the second inning and the score tied at zero in game two, Skerpon hit a single the other way to right centerfield to give the Nittany Lions a 2-0 edge on the Eagles.
Senior Sean Deegan (Readington, N.J.) had a nice game two, as he went 2-for-3 with two RBI and a double. Senior Joey DeBernardis (Lake Zurich, Ill.) also tripled in game two and scored two runs. Coban had a big game one with his homerun and scored two runs additionally.
Franklin was solid on the mound in game one, as he went six innings, giving up three hits and striking out a career-high eight batters in the win. Taylor pitched 2.2 innings in game two and struck out three batters to earn the win. Sophomore Tim Dunn (Newport Beach, Calif.) was excellent in relief, going 2.2 innings of giving up one hit and striking out three.
Penn State now turns to a big three-game series at the No. 19 Purdue Boilermakers beginning on Friday. Purdue currently ranks first in the country in hitting. Junior John Walter (Haddonfield, N.J.), sophomore Joe Kurrasch (San Juan Capistrano, Calif.) and junior Steven Hill (Colleyville, Texas) are expected to make the starts on the mound for the Lions.
Penn State Baseball is on Twitter via www.twitter.com/psubaseball.