March 29, 2018
By Mandy Bell, GoPSUSports.com student staff writer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Penn State finally returned home Wednesday after not playing at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park for nearly two weeks because of three postponed games. Despite being back on their own turf, the Nittany Lions hardly had home field advantage.
In a game where the box score may only reflect sloppy play, both Penn State and Cornell battled less than ideal weather conditions. What started as a hazy evening at first pitch turned into extremely dense fog by the seventh and eighth innings.
"I've never played in fog like that before," catcher Derek Orndorff said. "That's a first for that."
The Nittany Lions trailed by just two runs entering the eighth, but the fog became so thick that it was nearly unplayable. After two fly balls were hit to the outfield and neither left fielder Braxton Giavedoni nor center fielder Mason Nadeau was able to see them, the umpires decided to call the game early with Cornell ahead, 10-6.
"I couldn't see the ball," left fielder Braxton Giavedoni said. "It was kind of distracting. It probably was one of the craziest [games I've played] I'd say."
Although Orndorff and Giavedoni said it was difficult to see, they definitely did not show it in the batter's box. Giavedoni went 2-for-4 with two doubles and two runs scored, while Orndorff drew a walk in each of his four plate appearances.
"It was easy close up to see," Giavedoni said. "Once I [went] into the outfield, it was kind of hard seeing the ball go over the plate like the whole game."
"I felt like I was seeing the ball pretty well," Orndorff said. "Just taking it one pitch at a time and really focusing on what I could control."
Although the weather conditions were not favorable, Giavedoni and Orndorff were sure to point out that the fog was no excuse for the team's loss. Leading into this weekend's series against Purdue, Penn State head coach Rob Cooper wants the Nittany Lions to focus more on their mindset and passion rather than working on hitting or fielding.
"We're not practicing tomorrow," Cooper said. "Us practicing tomorrow is not going to make us better. Tonight wasn't about being able to field a ground ball or take batting practice. We didn't compete."
"We practice great. We really do. We have great practices. This is about [the players] making a choice and us as a group making a choice of what kind of team we want to be. If we come out Friday, Saturday and Sunday, whether we win any of them, but we fight hard and we compete and we play the game at the level that I think we can, then we will get right back at it."
With a 7-12 record to start the season, Cooper noted it's easy for the team to add pressure at the plate, especially with runners in scoring position. However, Cooper is hoping Penn State can push that pressure aside and relax at the plate.
"We're 19 games into this," Cooper said. "At some point you have to go, 'I don't care what my average is. I don't care if I make a mistake as long as I make a mistake doing it the right way.'"
After Sunday's 9-3 win against Rutgers Sunday, Cooper knows that his team is capable of playing at a much higher level than Wednesday's performance demonstrated. The Penn State head coach is hoping that Friday's series opener against Purdue will get his team back on the right track.
"We have to decide if [respecting the game and our uniform] is something that we want to do and we can," Cooper said. "We did it opening weekend against Elon. We did it Sunday against Rutgers. We can do it."