April 24, 2012
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Penn State baseball team (19-21, 6-6) trailed 3-0 late, but a five-run rally in the eighth inning put the Lions on top of Mount St. Mary's by a score of 5-3 on a wet and cold Tuesday night.
Freshman JJ White (Lansdowne, Va.) and senior Sean Deegan (Readington, N.J.) accounted for four of the five runs in the inning. White hit a two-run single and Deegan had the go-ahead RBI triple. Junior Elliot Searer (Lewistown, Pa.) had two hits and one RBI in the contest. Additionally, Jordan Steranka (Pittsburgh, Pa.) continued his climb up the school-record list with two hits. Steranka is now within 25 hits of the record. Junior Luis Montesinos (Miami, Fla.) had his third multi-hit game in his last four contests with a 2-for-4 effort.
Mount St. Mary's had a big sixth inning, scoring all of its runs after the first two batters were shut down by junior Neal Herring (West Chester, Pa.), who relieved senior Mike Franklin (Harleysville, Pa.), who pitched five scoreless innings. With runners on first and second later in the inning, Josh Winter tripled to left centerfield to give to score two runners, giving the Mountaineers a 2-0 lead.
Penn State would finally capitalize in the eighth inning. Steranka led off the inning with a double, his second hit of the game. Freshman Aaron Novak (Ambler, Pa.) walked and Montesinos singled to load the bases with nobody out. White then hit a two-run single to put the Nittany Lions within one run. Searer tied the game with an RBI single to left centerfield. The big blow in the inning came on a Deegan two-run triple to left field. Penn State took a 5-3 lead to the ninth.
Junior Evan Dixon (Waynesboro, Pa.) came in to get his second save of the season, as he struck out the side.
Penn State will be back in action tomorrow as it hosts Kent State at 6:05 p.m.
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