April 20, 2012
IOWA CITY, Iowa - After arriving in Iowa City via a flight on Friday afternoon, Penn State baseball (17-20, 5-5) got right to work just hours later, downing the Iowa Hawkeyes by a score of 5-2 at Duane Banks Field.
The Nittany Lions are three games under .500 overall for the first time since March 3, after being as much as 11 games under .500 earlier in the season. Penn State has won four games in a row, including its last three Big Ten contests.
Sophomore Joe Kurrasch (San Juan Capistrano, Calif.) made his first Friday start of the season. Kurrasch was great, going six innings of with no runs, five hits, six strikeouts and no walks. Sophomore Steve Snyder (West Chester, Pa.) had his fifth three-hit game of the season with a run and a double. Senior Joey DeBernardis (Lake Zurich, Ill.) and junior Luis Montesinos (Miami, Fla.) each had two hits and an RBI in the victory. Freshman JJ White (Lansdowne, Va.) drove in two.
In the top of the second inning with one out, freshman Aaron Novak (Ambler, Pa.) walked and Montesinos singled to give the Nittany Lions runners on the corners. White then hit a groundball to short that was bobbled. Novak scored and the Lions had a 1-0 lead. Freshman JC Coban (Boca Raton, Fla.) then followed with an RBI groundout as the Lions had a 2-0 lead after two.
In the bottom of the third, Kurrasch gave up his first two hits of the night. Iowa had runners on the corners with just one out in the inning. Then, with the runner at first taking off on the pitch, Mike McQuillan grounded a ball to Kurrasch. The sophomore assisted in a huge 1-6-3 double play to end the scare.
Kurrasch would exit the game after six innings and sophomore Greg Welsh (Holland, Pa.) came in for relief. With two runners on base in the seventh, Dan Sheppard would hit an RBI single to cut the Penn State lead to 2-1. Welsh escaped the inning though, which lead to big bottom of the eighth inning for the Nittany Lions. The big inning started with a two doubles from Snyder and DeBernardis. The RBI double by DeBernardis gave the Lions a 3-1 advantage. Penn State was not done in that inning. With one out, Montesinos hit an RBI single to centerfield to put PSU up 4-1. White picked up his second RBI of the night with an RBI single after Montesinos to make the score 5-1.
Sophomore Tim Dunn (Newport Beach, Calif.) pitched two innings of relief to secure the win for Kurrrasch, who picked up his third win of the season.
Penn State is back in action tomorrow as junior Steven Hill (Colleyville, Texas) will make the start on the mound for the Lions at 2:05 p.m. ET. Fans in State College can tune 103 WRSC, as Loren Crispell and Brian Tripp will provide the play-by-play from Iowa City.
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