Feb. 26, 2016
By Michele Jaroszewski, GoPSUsports.com Student Staff Writer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. ââ'¬" With the season opening weekend under its belt, the Penn State baseball team is headed to No. 15 South Carolina for the next series on the docket.
The Lions opened 2016 with a 2-2 mark in action at Cary, N.C., last week.
The Nittany Lions swept the Army in a doubleheader last Saturday with a close score of 5-4 in the first game and 11-0 in the second. Underclassmen pitching by Sal Biasi and Justin Hagenman kept the leads strong in both games, pitching six and seven innings, in super starting efforts.
The team faced some hiccups against Monmouth and Bryant, having both games results in a 3-1 score in favor of the opponents. Though the Lions had a tougher time facing the Hawks and Bulldogs, head coach Rob Cooper was overall pleased with the outcome of the weekend.
"I was pleased with a lot of things that we did. I felt that their overall mindset was where it needed to be," Cooper said. "It's the first time since I've been here that I truly felt like our guys thought they were going to win all four games."
With the team falling short of winning all four games, Cooper noticed that those loses weren't interfering with the players' mindsets.
"That mind set in truly believing that you are going to win is something that we haven't done a good job of," Cooper said. "To watch them compete the way they did, then find a way to win, and be in all four games to have a chance to win; I was pleased with the weekend overall.
As for some of the mistakes on the field, Cooper said that most of the miscues made were aggressive ones, and were good for the players. Cooper, along with the rest of the coaching staff, wants the players to not be afraid of making mistakes.
"The good thing is that they were aggressive, and you can dial that back a little bit and hone it in," Cooper said.
One thing to keep in mind is that the team is very young this year. With 11 true freshmen joining this season, the players have a lot to learn to ease into this level of playing.
"Those guys have to learn what it's like to win games at that level. This team has to learn what it's like to win games at this level," Cooper said. "I think you'll see us continue to get better as the season goes on.
"To me, the number one thing is if we can duplicate that mind set, every time out, then we have a chance to win a lot of games."
When asked how pitching will improve and get stronger throughout the season, Cooper said that the biggest improvement already since the past two years has been starting pitchers lasting past the fifth inning.
"When you're able to give quality starts as a starting pitcher, it makes your bull pen stronger and has more guys available," Cooper said. "Just the fact that our guys really commanded the ball well and pitched on the attack, I think they did really well."
"As a team we think we did really well, 2-2,we felt like we could've pulled those two loses out and turn them into wins," said infielder Jim Haley. "We're very happy with how we did and it definitely set the tone for the season coming up."
When asked on his own thoughts of how this season already compares to previous ones, Haley said that there are big differences that he and the team talk about a lot.
"There is a belief that we can win," Haley said. "Especially with these young guys taking a role in pitching, did very well this weekend."
As for this upcoming weekend, Haley said that the team is optimistic and viewing this weekend just like any other series, hoping to improve from the outcome.
The first game of the three-game series is set to start Friday at 4 p.m.