April 22, 2013
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Coming off of its first Big Ten series win, the Penn State baseball team will host La Salle and Mount St. Mary's for two midweek, non-conference contests. The Nittany Lions (10-25, 2-10) will face off with the Explorers (18-19, 11-4) on Tuesday, April 23 and battle the Mount (7-25, 2-14) on Wednesday, April 24. Both contests will be held at 6:05 p.m. at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park.
Promotions: Tuesday evening is ROTC Night at Medlar Field, with students from Penn State's ROTC program being recognized during the Explorers contest. Wednesday's game against the Mount is a CODE Blue Blast, with free pizza from Rotelli's outside Medlar's gates while supplies last and students earning 3 CODE Blue points when they swipe in. Both games will also feature "Winning Weeknights" scratch off tickets at the gates while supplies last.
Links: Both contests will be available via GameTracker and Listen Live at GoPSUsports.com, as well as updated at the @PennStateBASE Twitter account.
Last Time Out: The Lions took the conference series against Iowa, 2-1, winning 8-7 and 7-4 for their first Big Ten victories of the season. Penn State hit .302 as a team this weekend, with junior Alex Farkes (Boston, Mass.) leading the squad with a .571 batting average in two contests. Farkes collected four hits and four runs, as well as one of Penn State's 10 doubles in three games. Sophomore J.C. Coban (Boca Raton, Fla.) led the Lions with three doubles, five RBIs and six hits in his weekend performance, including his walk-off double in the 8-7 come-from-behind victory. Posting an average of .545, redshirt junior Steve Snyder (West Chester, Pa.) recorded six hits, two RBIs and four runs scored, with sophomores J.J. White (Lansdowne, Va.) and Aaron Novak (Ambler, Pa.) each collecting four hits, one run, one double and an RBI. Rounding out Penn State's stellar performances, senior Luis Montesinos (Miami, Fla.) tallied three hits, two runs, two RBIs and two doubles, while sophomore Taylor Skerpon (Sayre, Pa.) notched two hits, two doubles, three runs and three RBIs.
Sophomore Ryan Harper (Texas City, Texas) led the Lions on the mound, throwing 4.0 scoreless innings in the 5-2 loss to the Hawkeyes and holding Iowa hitless. Earning his second save of the season on Sunday, redshirt senior Cody Lewis (Laguna Niguel, Calif.) allowed just two hits and one earned run in his 3.1-inning outing to improve to a 2.31 ERA. Junior Greg Welsh (Holland, Pa.) earned the win in the 7-4 victory after holding the Hawkeyes to two earned runs and six hits, while senior Neal Herring (West Chester, Pa.) earned the win in the walk-off victory on Saturday, holding the opposition hitless in 1.2 innings. Breaking into the Penn State all-time record book, senior Steven Hill (Colleyville, Texas) struck out five batters to move to 202 career strikeouts on Saturday. Hill allowed 10 hits and just two earned runs in 5.0 innings of action.
Scouting the Explorers: Riding a six-game win streak, La Salle most recently swept A-10 opponent UMass in a weekend series, winning 17-5, 9-7 and 6-2. Five Explorers are currently hitting over .300, including team-leader Mark Williams with a .347 average. Williams leads his squad with 23 RBIs, while Kevin Baron holds a team-best 45 hits and 23 runs. The trio of Williams, Baron and Justin Korenblatt has combined for 121 hits, 64 runs and 58 RBIs. La Salle's bullpen is led by Adam Cherry, Pat Christensen and Austin Clark. Christensen has struck out 42 batters in 16 appearances and two starts, and currently holds a 3.03 ERA with 30 hits and 12 earned runs allowed in 35.2 innings. Cherry holds a team-best 2.28 ERA, firing 23.2 innings with 23 hits and six earned runs allowed, while Clark sits with a 3.49 ERA with 30 hits and 11 earned runs allowed in 28.1 innings. The Explorers' starter for Tuesday has yet to be announced.
Scouting the Mount: Despite snapping a seven-game losing streak on April 17 at Maryland, Mount St. Mary's recently dropped a weekend series to LIU Brooklyn, falling 10-3, 2-1, 8-3 and 7-6. The Mount is led by Tom Healy and Jay Knight, holding respective batting averages of .337 and .291 with 34 hits apiece. Knight has tallied a team-best 23 runs, while Sam Nott has recorded 30 RBIs. The trio has combined for 92 hits, 54 RBIs and 51 runs, with Nott boasting a team-best seven home runs, as well. MSM's bullpen is led by Vincent Molesky, holding a 4.60 ERA in 10 appearances and two starts. Molesky has allowed 25 hits and eight earned runs in 15.2 innings. Chris Campbell and Alain Girman have each made 10 appearances and fired 25.0 innings. Campbell, who holds a 5.04 ERA, has allowed 30 hits and 14 earned runs with 13 strikeouts, while Girman has allowed 24 hits and 15 earned runs with 29 strikeouts. The Mount's starter for Wednesday has yet to be announced.
All-Time Series: Penn State is 8-3 in the all-time series against La Salle, most recently falling 3-2 on April 27, 2010. This will be the 10th time in program history that the Lions and the Mount have faced off, after first meeting in 1897. PSU holds a 5-3-1 advantage in the all-time series, most recently topping MSM 5-3 on April 24, 2012.
Up Next: The Lions will head back out on the road to take on Big Ten opponent Ohio State for a weekend series. The conference set will begin on Friday, April 26 at 6:35 p.m. in Columbus. Following the battle against the Buckeyes, Penn State will host Minnesota for another Big Ten series from May 3-5 at Medlar Field.
Tickets: Season tickets for students are just $20, with Student General Admission tickets starting at $2 and Student Bleacher tickets at $1. Season tickets for Adult General Admission start at $63, while Adult General Admission tickets are sold for $4. For fans interested in the Diamond Club "In the Box" seats, single games start at $6 and season tickets will be sold for $99. Youth General Admission and Season tickets are the same cost as student tickets. Single game tickets can be purchased at the Spikes' Box Office or via the Tickets page on GoPSUSports.com.
Check back to GoPSUSports.com for continued updates during the 2013 season. Follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/PennStateBASE and find us on Facebook at facebook.com/pennstatebaseball.