April 1, 2014
Relief pitchers perhaps play the most unexpected role in baseball. One poor batter could lead to an equally poor inning and a short-lived outing. One strong batter could lead to a strong inning followed by another and another and another.
The latter scenario is what took place for Penn State relief pitchers senior Ian Parvin and freshman Dakota Forsyth during Friday and Saturday's two game sweep of Northwestern to open Big Ten play. Neither pitcher had an incredibly strong outing by their coach's or their own standards, but they got the job done to secure both Nittany Lion wins.
Parvin went four and two-thirds scoreless innings, surrendering just two hits and striking out to hold Northwestern at bay after three runs in the first four innings. Forsyth followed suit the next morning tossing five and two-thirds innings, giving up four hits and two earned runs.
"It was awesome," Cooper said of Forsyth's performance. "It was like what he did against Bucknell. He was lights out. He didn't pitch very well today command wise, but he competed. When he needed to he said `alright here you go hit it.' That's big. It was a great effort and we needed it."
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