March 17, 2018
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UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. ââ'¬" LHP Taylor Lehman (Pittsburgh, Pa.) and RHP Eric Mock (Shillington, Pa.) limited NJIT to four hits, as Penn State defeated the Highlanders, 5-3, in the second game of a baseball doubleheader Saturday at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park.
Penn State (6-8) won the first game 4-3, and will look to complete a series sweep of NJIT (7-7) Sunday starting at noon.
Lehman (2-1) went a season-high six-plus innings, allowing two runs (one earned) on three hits and five walks with three strikeouts. After a lead-off walk, Mock (3) took over for Lehman in the seventh and pitched the final three innings, striking out four and making just one miscue, surrendering a solo home run in the eighth.
At the plate, Penn State had a balanced attack with all nine reaching base, eight totaling 10 hits and five tallying an RBI each.
NJIT was paced by left fielder Jesse Uttendorfer and first baseman Julio Marcano, who both went 2-for-4. Uttendorfer scored all three runs, doubling and hitting the home run in the eighth.
As it did in the first game, Penn State scored in the bottom of the first inning. Catcher Ryan Sloniger (Punxsutawney, Pa.) started the offense with a double off of the top of the 18.55-foot wall in right field, and he scored on a single off the pitcher's mound and up the middle by first baseman Shea Sbranti (Oakley, Calif.)
Sbranti, playing for the first time in Medlar Field at Lubrano Park, led Penn State by driving in three of its nine runs scored in the doubleheader.
NJIT evened the game in the top of the second, as Uttendorfer led frame off with a double and later scored from third with the bases loaded on a sacrifice fly by catcher Paul Franzoni.
The Nittany Lions retook the lead in the bottom of the second, as right fielder Curtis Robison (Dillsburg, Pa.) followed a Conlin Hughes (Holly Springs, N.C.) single with a double to center. The third was scoreless, and then NJIT tied the game in the fourth, as Uttendorfer scored from third with the bases loaded on a double play.
The fifth was scoreless, but Penn State went back into the lead with two runs in the sixth. Left fielder Braxton Giavedoni (Punxsutawney, Pa.) led the frame off with a triple to center and designated hitter Mason Nadeau (Lansdale, Pa.) followed with a double to left center to score him. Nadeau then advanced to third on a balk and across the plate on a sacrifice fly by Hughes.
Penn State threatened to break the game open in the seventh, loading the bases with one out, but RHP James Sofield but entered for NJIT and got out of the jam with a strikeout and fielder's choice play.
Uttendorfer hit a two-out, solo home run into the right field bleachers in the top of the eighth, but Penn State restored the two-run lead in the bottom half on an RBI-double by Logan Goodnight (Wheeling, W.Va.) Goodnight drove in Robison, who had walked.
Robison reached base in all four plate appearances, going 2-for-2 with a double and two walks.
Season, flex and single-game tickets for the 2018 season, presented by Family Clothesline, are available online at GoPSUsports.com or by calling the Medlar Field at Lubrano Park ticket office at 814-272-1711.
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