April 23, 2012
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Penn State baseball (18-21, 6-6) opens up a five-game homestand with the Mount St. Mary's Mountaineers on Tuesday at 6:05 at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park. The Nittany Lions will be in action again on Wednesday as it hosts Kent State at 6:05.
Tuesday will be Collegian Night. All student tickets that show up to the game with a ticket voucher that can be found in Tuesday's Collegian will get free admission. Wednesday's game vs. Kent State will be 90's Throwback Night.
Tuesday and Wednesday's contests can be heard on ESPN Radio 1450 State College with Loren Crispell and Brian Tripp calling the action. Live stats will be available via a Gametracker link on GoPSUSports.com. In addition, fans can follow @psubaseball on Twitter for up-to-the-minute updates.
Penn State is coming off a memorable weekend, where it took two of three from the Iowa Hawkeyes to move into a tie for fifth place overall in the Big Ten Standings. Junior Steven Hill (Colleyville, Texas) was named Big Ten Pitcher of the Week after throwing a no-hitter on Saturday, the conference office announced on Monday. This is Hill's first Pitcher of the Week award since May 16 of last year. Hill threw a no-hitter in a 2-0 victory over the Iowa Hawkeyes on Saturday afternoon. Hill is the first Penn State pitcher to throw a no-hitter since Nate Bump did against Duquesne in 1995. Hill is the first Nittany Lion pitcher ever to throw a no-hitter in a Big Ten game.
The Mountaineers enter Tuesday's contest with a 12-32 overall record this season. Offensively, they are hitting .270 as a team and have two batters that are hitting north of .300. Mark Quaranta leads the Mountaineers with a .354 batting average 44 games this season. He has hit four homers and has driven in 30. Josh Winter leads the team with 36 RBI and five homers to go along with a .303 batting average.
Penn State holds a slim 4-3-1 all-time advantage on The Mount. Penn State lost the most recent matchup by a score of 2-1 in April of 2010.
Kent State enters Tuesday's contest with Niagara with a 22-16 overall mark and a 11-3 record in MAC action. The Golden Flashes have won 15 of their past 21 games. Leading the way offensively is Nick Hamilton, who is hitting .420 on the season. Hamilton has played in just 28 games but has driven in 21 runs. George Roberts has hit five homers and has driven in 32 runs this year. Kent State is hitting an impressive .302 as a team.
This will be the 10thall-time matchup between the Golden Flashes and the Nittany Lions. On April 3 this year, Senior Joey DeBernardis (Lake Zurich, Ill.) homered, tripled and singled in a four RBI performance as Penn State knocked off the Golden Flashes by a score of 9-7 in Kent, Ohio.
Follow Penn State baseball on Twitter: www.twitter.com/psubaseball.