March 31, 2018
By Jack Dougherty, GoPSUsports.com student staff writer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - After Wednesday's loss to Cornell, Penn State head coach Rob Cooper was quick to point out his team didn't bring the effort and passion to the field Penn State is accustomed to.
"We have to decide if [respecting the game and our uniform] is something that we want to do and we can," Cooper said after the game.
Following a day off Thursday, Penn State rebounded Friday with a passionate effort against Purdue featuring Nittany Lion fielders diving for anything near them, batters fighting for every pitch and pitchers digging deep to give it all they had.
Friday's battle ended in a narrow 3-2 victory for Purdue, but Cooper was nevertheless proud to see his team fight again.
"I was not pleased with our team after Wednesday's competitive level," Cooper said. "I'm 180 degrees the other way [tonight]. "I thought our guys fought like crazy. I thought our guys played with great energy. I thought they competed, I thought they fought. I'm proud of this team's effort today, and if we can learn from that I think we're going to be in a good spot moving forward."
Junior starting pitcher Justin Hagenman turned in a gritty performance on the mound for the Nittany Lions. Hagenman notched season highs in innings pitched (seven), pitches (104), and strikeouts (nine). He surrendered just five hits and one earned run in the game.
Hagenman hasn't been able to pitch that deep into games this season so far, but he fought through the fatigue and put together one of his finest starts of the season Friday. Even when his offense wasn't giving him any run support, Hagenman battled to keep Penn State within striking distance.
"You know there are going to be days when you get all the run support and days when you get no runs until late in the game, but it's just your job to do all you can do to keep your team in the game until you hand the ball off," Hagenman said. "It doesn't really change the way I go about it."
Cooper said Hagenman's statistics this year and last don't reflect how good of a pitcher he really is.
Last season Hagenman received less than two runs of support in eight of his 14 starts and three or less in 11 of 14 starts. Despite leading the team in innings pitched (80.1) and placing second in strikeouts (75), Hagenman recorded just one win in 2017.
"He's a tough kid, competitive kid," Cooper said. "I thought he took a huge step today because even in the seventh inning his [velocity] was good and his stuff was sharp, and that's the mark of an ace."
On the offensive and defensive ends, sophomore Joe Weisenseel also exemplified what it means to be a Penn State athlete during the weekend series against Purdue.
In the seventh inning of game one with a runner on third, Weisenseel ripped a ground ball off the pitcher's foot and the ball sprayed to the second baseman for what seemed to be an easy, lucky out. However, Weisenseel shot out of the batters' box and slid head first into first base to beat the throw and drive in Penn State's first run of the game.
"Every time [Weisenseel] has been healthy since he's been here, he hasn't had a whole lot of fear," Cooper said. "He's not a physical kid, so he has to play with that mindset. He's able to have success at this level because of that."
Weisenseel kept his foot on the pedal for Saturday's second game and his contagious energy spread throughout the dugout.
Junior Shea Sbranti ran about 100 yards combined on two foul ball plays--sprinting backward with his hat falling off both times, Sbranti bolted toward the dugout and laid out for the two pop ups. He was unable to reel in either of the fly balls, but Cooper praised his and others' efforts during the doubleheader.
Both Weisenseel and freshman Curtis Robison made diving plays that seemed impossible to make off the bat to save runs.
Penn State ended up dropping all three games to Purdue over the weekend--two in close fashion that could've gone either way. The bats and arms haven't quite clicked at the same time yet this season, but a confident mindset is necessary for success. Penn State seems to have found it again.
"Sitting here right now I don't think we're going to be like this the entire year," Cooper said. "There's a lot of season left. There's a lot of Big Ten play left. There's nothing else you can do except put your head down, keep working, stay positive, and try to pull the good out of what we did today and improve on it."