May 3, 2013
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Returning home to Medlar Field at Lubrano Park on Friday evening, the Penn State baseball team dropped an 11-2 decision to Minnesota to open the Big Ten series. The Nittany Lions move to an overall record of 11-29 with a 2-14 mark in conference play, while the Gophers improve to 27-14 and 10-3. The squads will face off again tomorrow, May 4 at 2:05 p.m.
Junior Tom Windle earned his sixth win of the season for the Gophers, moving to a 6-2 record on the season with a 1.82 ERA. Windle, who leads the Big Ten in strikeouts, struck out four while allowing seven hits and just two unearned runs in 7.0 innings of work. Stepping in to relieve the junior for the final two innings, freshman Lance Thonvold held the Lions hitless while striking out two.
Suffering the loss for Penn State, redshirt sophomore T.J. Jann (Westford, Mass.) made his eighth start of the season with three hits and seven earned runs allowed. Several Nittany Lions came out of the bullpen during the conference contest, with senior Neal Herring (West Chester, Pa.) firing 2.0 scoreless innings and giving up just two hits. Freshman Jack Anderson (Evanston, Ill.) made his 13th appearance of the season, closing out the ninth inning with just one hit allowed.
Responding after a first-inning run from the Gophers, Penn State came back with two runs on two outs in the bottom of the second. Extending his hit streak to 10 games, junior Alex Farkes (Boston, Mass.) ripped a hit to left center to move sophomore J.J. White (Lansdowne, Va.) to second. Junior Zach Ell (Plains, Pa.) followed up with his 13th hit of the season, doubling to the left field corner to drive in White and Farkes for a 2-1 lead. It was Ell's first double of the season to earn his 14th and 15th career RBIs.
Despite the momentum surge early on in the contest, the Lions would be held scoreless for the remainder of the game, with Minnesota tallying six runs in the top of the fourth for a 7-2 lead. The Gophers went on to claim an 11-2 victory, with redshirt senior Kurt Schlangen leading the pack with three RBIs and going 2-for-4. Connor Schaefbauer went 2-for-3 with two runs scored, while Troy Larson went 1-for-2 with two runs scored and an RBI. Matt Halloran collected one hit, one run and two RBIs, with Andy Henkemeyer and Dan Olinger each posted two hits, one run scored and an RBI, as well.
Ell led Penn State at the plate, collected one hit, one double and two RBIs. Sophomore Taylor Skerpon (Sayre, Pa.) posted his sixth double of the season on his 31st hit, while freshman James Coates (Girard, Ohio) collected his 35th hit of the season and redshirt junior Steve Snyder (West Chester, Pa.) recorded his 44th. While Farkes kept his 10-game hit streak alive, redshirt senior Elliot Searer (Lewistown, Pa.) extended his streak to five games on his 34th hit of the season.
Check back to GoPSUsports.com for continued updates during the 2013 season. Find us at Facebook at facebook.com/pennstatebaseball and follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/PennStateBASE.