May 13, 2013
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - In a season that has featured its fair share of ups and downs, Penn State (12-34, 3-18 Big Ten) enters the final week of the college baseball regular season with optimism. Even after dropping their series at Illinois (31-15, 12-9 Big Ten) last weekend the Nittany Lions are focused on closing out the year on a high note.
A pair of narrow losses on Saturday and Sunday followed a series-opening shutout loss on Friday night at Illinois, but the ability to bounce back has been something this group of Lions has shown all season.
The Lions have three come-from-behind wins, but there are at least a handful of games that have seen Penn State close the gap late in the game and put themselves in a position to win the game.
"We've had a tough year, but our kids are still battling," said assistant coach Eric Folmar. "They work hard and they play hard. They get after it and there's no quit in these guys. There is no doubt that are ability to rally late in games is a credit to our guys not giving up."
That ability to keep a steady temperament was on full display Saturday in Champaign, Ill. when Penn State found themselves down, 7-1, in the third inning after being shutout, 9-0, in the series opener. The Lions kept that fighters mentality that Folmar mentioned and eventually brought the go-ahead run to the plate in the ninth inning of an 8-6 setback.
"Even when we are down [our guys] are still out there fighting," Folmar said. "They don't throw at-bats away, they just keep competing. A lot of teams just shut it down when they are struggling, but our guys just continue to battle."
On Sunday some late offense by the Illini gave them a 5-4 lead entering the ninth. However, nothing changed for the Nittany Lions, who put a pair of base runners on before UI closer Bryan Roberts induced a game-ending double play to close out the contest.
An error led to the eventual game winning run in Sunday's game and a couple of errors on Saturday led to runs for Illinois, as well. Errors are one thing that has hurt this team in 2013. The misplays lead to more opportunities for the opposition on offense and this group knows that they can't give extra outs to their opponents.
"When you look at a lot of our games this season it seems like there is one inning in each game that has haunted us," said assistant coach Eric Folmar. We keep telling our guys is that we have to eliminate mistakes."
The Nittany Lions saw some of the aforementioned mistakes come into play in each game over the weekend at Illinois. In Friday's loss, a mental error with two outs allowed the Illini's time at bat to be prolonged and the home squad took advantage, scoring seven runs in the inning.
"If you go back to the Friday game, Illinois scored all of their runs in two innings," said Folmar, "so the big inning hurt us, again. The Friday score was a little misleading and we just came out [on Saturday and Sunday] and our guys believed we could win both of those games."
Those big innings, when four or more runs are scored, have been a bugaboo for the Blue and White all season. They know there's not reset button to push when big innings happen, but if you look at their games and take away the big innings this team has been in nearly every game they have played this season.
Penn State has played 10, one-run games this season and nearly half of their games, 20, have been decided by two or fewer runs. This team knows the importance of moving on quickly from a mistake and the coaching staff continues to instill this into their players.
With the Illinois series now in the rearview mirror, Penn State turns its attention to a four-game homestand to close out the 2013 campaign.
Sophomore Patton Taylor will take the mound vs. Villanova (11-39) in a Tuesday afternoon matinée at 3:35 p.m. before the Blue and White try to send their nine seniors - eight players and one manager - out in style against Michigan State (29-16, 10-8 Big Ten) in a three-game series that begin on Thursday, May 16 at 6:05 p.m. inside Medlar Field at Lubrano Park.
"We are going to go out and get after it at practice [on Monday]," said Folmar, "and we are going to keep fighting and keep battling this week. The most important thing for us is to make sure we send our nine seniors out on a good note. We want to make sure they can remember these last four game for the rest of their lives. We have to make sure we finish on a positive note and send these seniors out the right way."
--NITTANY LIONS--