April 28, 2018
By Mandy Bell, GoPSUSports.com, student staff writer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Justin Hagenman has been the workhorse Penn State has relied on countless times over the last three years. The junior has led the team in innings pitched all three of his seasons, throwing 82 innings in 2016, 80 1/3 innings last season and 53 2/3 this year entering Friday night's game.
Hagenman continued that trend against Northwestern Friday evening when he cruised through eight innings allowing just two earned runs before a thunderstorm postponed the final 1 2/3 innings of the game Saturday.
"The thing about Justin Hagenman is he's a competitor. Always has been," Penn State head coach Rob Cooper said. "Tonight we got exactly what I thought we would from Hag[enman] and if we play just a little bit better defense and help him out, I think the game is over and the final score is probably 6-1 and I'm at home right now."
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Not only did the Penn State ace give his bullpen a night off with his eight strong innings on the mound, the right hander also recorded eight strikeouts, which is the second most of the season behind his nine-strikeout night against Purdue March 30th.
"[He had] command, was pounding the strike zone, able to go in, keeping the ball down and being able to repeat his off-speed stuff for strikes," Cooper said of what was working for Hagenman against the Wildcats.
Despite leading the team in both innings pitched and strikeouts through the first 34 games of the season, Hagenman (2-5) has struggled to maintain a decent record. But, this is not something new to the junior starter.
The right hander has struggled to get run support from his team the last two seasons on the mound. In 2017, Hagenman went 1-11 receiving just two or less runs of support in eight of his 14 starts and three or less in 11 of 14 starts.
Unfortunately, the pattern has continued into the 2018 season. Despite allowing three or less runs in seven of his 10 starts, Hagenman has only picked up two wins so far this year. If the Nittany Lions hang on to the 6-4 lead and secure the win in game one Saturday, the right hander will pick up his third win of the season.
Although a lot of players would mentally struggle without the constant run support of their offense, Cooper said that Hagenman has never once battled that issue.
"It's mental toughness, it really is," Cooper said. "It's why he's good. It's why he's going to get a chance to play professional baseball. That's an example of a guy that could get upset and be like, 'Hey I rolled a ground ball we should've gotten out of this inning.' If a guy is not mentally tough, if he doesn't worry about just what he has to do and stay in the present, they can probably let that get to him. And he didn't do that."
The Nittany Lions sit in a good position leading the Wildcats 6-4 with one out in the bottom of the eighth inning that will be finished at 1 p.m. Saturday. Although Penn State is just five outs away from its first conference win since March 25 against Rutgers, Cooper and his team are not taking any lead for granted.
"Obviously this isn't over," Cooper said. "We still got some work to do tomorrow. Obviously if you give me an opportunity to have a two run lead with three outs to go on defense, then I think we'll take it. We'll come tomorrow and go through our regular pregame routine and get ready to go and try to finish this one off. We will worry about game two when it happens."