April 2, 2012
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Coming off a 16-run and 19-hit outburst at Purdue on Sunday, Penn State baseball (8-18, 2-4) opens up midweek action at Kent State on Tuesday. First pitch is slated for 3 p.m. at Schoonover Stadium. The Nittany Lions then return home on Wednesday as it hosts Binghamton at 6:05 p.m.
Tuesday and Wednesday's games can be heard on ESPN Radio State College 1450 with Loren Crispell calling the action on Tuesday and Brian Tripp joining him on Wednesday. Live stats will be available via a link on GoPSUSports.com. In addition, fans can follow @psubaseball on Twitter for up-to-the-minute updates.
Senior southpaw Mike Franklin (Harleysville, Pa.) will get the start on the mound in Tuesday's contest with Kent State. In his most recent outing against Coppin State last week, Franklin went six innings, giving up three hits and striking out a career-high eight batters in the win. Two weeks ago against Pittsburgh, Franklin had a very quality outing, going 5.2 innings and giving up three earned runs in a 5-3 victory over the Panthers.
Junior right-hander Cody Lewis (Laguna Niguel, Calif.) will get the ball on Wednesday evening against Binghamton. Lewis will be making his first start since March 11 when he faced UAB. Lewis hurled a nice quality start against Samford to earn his first ever win in a Penn State uniform on March 3. The junior went six innings, giving up seven hits and just one earned run.
Penn State closed out the weekend with a season-high 16 runs and 19 hits in a 16-6 victory over the No. 19 Purdue Boilermakers on Sunday afternoon. The Nittany Lions belted four homeruns and had a seven-run third inning. The first four batters in the Nittany Lion lineup collected a total of 11 hits and drove in 10 runs. Senior Sean Deegan started it all with leadoff homerun to begin the game. Senior Jordan Steranka (Pittsburgh, Pa.) had four hits and drove in three runs. Senior Joey DeBernardis (Lake Zurich, Ill.) tied his career-high in RBI with five and belted a two-run homer in the seventh inning. Sophomore Steve Snyder (West Chester, Pa.) drove in two runs and had three hits as he made his second start of the season in the No. 2 spot.
The bottom of the order put together a great performance as well. Sophomore Alex Farkes (Boston, Mass.) had a three-hit performance and two RBI, which included a massive home run in the eighth inning. Freshman Aaron Novak (Ambler, Pa.) belted his second homerun of the season as well. Junior Elliot Searer (Lewistown, Pa.) collected two hits and a had a great game defensively in the field. Sophomore Steven Hill (Colleyville, Texas) picked up his first win of the season as he went 6.2 innings, giving up four runs, three of which were earned. He walked just one batter and struck out three.
Kent State enters Tuesday's contest with a 14-12 overall mark and a 6-0 record in MAC action. The Golden Flashes have won six of their last eight games and are coming off a series sweep over Ball State this past weekend. Penn State has one common opponent in Pittsburgh with Kent State. The Panthers downed the Golden Flashes by a score of 6-5 back on March 28. Leading the way offensively is Nick Hamilton, who is hitting .490 on the season. Hamilton has played in just 16 games but has driven in 11 runs. Jimmy Rider has hit three homeruns this year and has driven in 22 runs, to go along with a .336 batting average. Michael Clark will get the start on the mound for Kent State, as he is winless on the year with an ERA north of seven.
This will be the ninth all-time matchup between the Golden Flashes and the Nittany Lions. Kent State has won three of the last four matchups, including a 7-6 win last year.
Penn State will be taking on Binghamton for the fist time on Wednesday night. Zach Blanden is the Bearcats' leading hitter, sporting an average of .408. They sport an 8-10 overall record and have yet to begin conference action.
Wednesday will be a "Winning Weeknight Scratchoff" game. The first 200 fans that show up to any weeknight game this season will receive a scratchoff ticket. Each ticket is a guaranteed winner of a Penn State Baseball prize. In addition, any student that wears an MLB cap will get free admittance into the game.
Following the midweek matchups, Penn State will host Canisius in a three-game set beginning this Friday at 6:05 at Medlar Field. All student season ticket holders that attend Friday's game can get free food as part of the "Free Food Friday" promotion. In addition, it will be Dollar Dog Night at the ballpark. Following Saturday's game, all kids in attendance can participate in an Easter Egg Hunt on the field.
Season tickets for students are just $20 and each student that purchases them will receive a Penn State Baseball three-quarters sleeve t-shirt, tickets to remaining home games, free food on Friday home games and two batting practice sessions with the team.
Season tickets for Adult General Admission start at just $63. For fans interested in the "In The Box" seats, those will start at $99. Youth General Admission tickets are the same cost as student season tickets, $20. Individual game tickets for Adult General Admission start at just $4 and just $2 for youth. Single game tickets can be purchased at the Spikes' box office or via a link on the tickets page on GoPSUSports.com.
Follow Penn State baseball on Twitter: www.twitter.com/psubaseball.