May 6, 2013
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - It was a precarious situation the Nittany Lions found themselves in; bases loaded, no outs in the bottom of the tenth inning in a tie game. Penn State (12-30, 3-15 Big Ten) got out of the jam unscathed and flipped the script on Minnesota (28-15, 11-4 Big Ten), loading the bases with no out before a Tyler Skerpon fielders choice pushed the game winning run across the plate.
If you were in the stands at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park you could feel the momentum begin to shift in the sixth inning when the Lions tied the game at 3-3 with a pair of runs and when Neal Herring got out of the bases loaded jam in the tenth inning, you knew that it was a now or never moment.
"The pitching feeds off the defense, which feeds off the hitting," said senior Luis Montesinos. "Everything feeds off the other and when [the pitchers] are doing well [the hitters] are going to take that confidence to the plate."
The team fed off of each other down the stretch in the series final against Minnesota.
After starting pitcher Steven Hill allowed a pair of runs in the top of the sixth inning it looked like the Lions were headed towards a sixth straight loss, but that was not the case.
J.C. Coban and Skerpon got the bottom of the sixth inning started with a single and a walk, respectively. James Coates followed with his fourth infield single of the year and when Gophers third baseman Ryan Abrahamson's throw went wide of the first baseman, Coban and Skerpon were both able cross the plate to tie things up.
Both team's threatened during the next four innings, but it wasn't until Skerpon stepped to the plate in the tenth that someone was able to end the battle of wills.
"I've been struggling a little bit lately," said Skerpon, "but going into my last at-bat I told [Coban], `if you don't do it, I'm going to'. I just went to the plate wanting to hit the ball hard somewhere. The corners were playing in and I obviously didn't hit it very hard, but I did my best to beat it out and it was enough."
The sophomore was 0-for-3 with a walk entering his fifth plate appearance of the afternoon, but the confidence never wavered and he delivered one of the biggest hits of his young career.
In life you do your best work when you feel comfortable; it's the same way in baseball. On Sunday, the Lions entered the series final with a comfortable feeling at the plate and it showed as they out-hit the Gophers, 8-7, and put base runners on in seven of the ten innings.
Wine felt like his team had played well offensively all weekend, especially against a pitching staff as deep as Minnesota's. The Gophers do not allow many big innings and have limited opponents to 4.6 runs per game this season and own a Big Ten-best .230 batting average against, however, Penn State never felt uneasy in the batter's box.
"We are a team that is going hustle and play hard," said Skerpon. "We are always working hard, everyone is up early working in the weight room, doing conditioning and getting in swings. That's one thing we stress before every game to make sure that you are locked in and playing hard on every pitch."
Now the Lions have to carry that momentum into the final two weeks of the regular season. With just eight games left on the schedule, Penn State will play four straight road games, before closing the year with four straight at home and are looking to keep this momentum going down the stretch.
"We just have to keep moving forward," said Skerpon. "We saw some pretty good pitching from Minnesota this weekend and the bats started to come alive a little bit. We just have to keep playing out game, getting on base, moving runners, stealing bases and playing solid defensively."
The effort has been there, but sometimes baseball is about catching - or making - a break or two and the Lions made their own breaks on Sunday and were able to end the weekend on a high note.
"I have been really happy with our effort," said Wine. "Sometimes things just haven't gone our way, but today we just went out there and reacted and it worked out for us."
--NITTANY LIONS--