May 14, 2018

Box Score

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. ââ'¬" A seven-run second inning and strong pitching powered Penn State past St. Bonaventure, 10-2, in its baseball home finale Monday evening in Medlar Field at Lubrano Park.

Penn State (14-31) totaled 13 hits with all nine starters registering a hit by the end of the third inning, and shortstop Joe Weisenseel (Strongsville, Ohio) led the group with a season high-setting and career high-tying three hits. Weisenseel also had two runs scored and an RBI, while center fielder Jordan Bowersox (Winter Springs, Fla.) and designated hitter Ryan Sloniger (Punxsutawney, Pa.) both went 2-for-4 with two runs and two RBIs, with Bowersox's triple representing the game's the lone extra base hit. First baseman Shea Sbranti (Oakley, Calif.) also drove in two.

RHP Eric Mock (Shillington, Pa.) (2-1) worked a season-high five innings, limiting St. Bonaventure (9-31) to two runs (one earned), on four hits and three walks with four strikeouts, and three seniors made their final appearances on Medlar Field at Lubrano Park to close it out. LHP Taylor Lehman (Pittsburgh, Pa.) took over for Mock and worked two scoreless innings and struck out one, and he was followed by LHP Colin Macon (Freedom, Pa.), who worked a scoreless eighth inning, and RHP Jake Pilewicz (Sewickley, Pa.), who worked a scoreless ninth.

St. Bonaventure scored in the first inning on a passed ball, but Penn State answered with seven runs in the second inning, sending 12 batters to the plate.

Sbranti got the inning rolling after getting plunked in an 0-2 count, and then designated hitter Parker Hendershot (Barton, N.Y.) followed with a single and the Bonnies incorrectly guessed a Curtis Robison (Dillsburg, Pa.) bunt would roll foul, loading the bases. Second baseman Tommy Gibson (Williamstown, N.J.) drove in Sbranti with a sacrifice fly to deep left field, and then the Nittany Lions strung together six-straight hits. Weisenseel and catcher Derek Orndorff (Mill Run, Pa.) drove in a run each with base hits, Bowersox tripled to "The Nook" in left-center field to drive in two, Sloniger poked one through the right side, third baseman Connor Klemann (Royersford, Pa.) singled, and then Sbranti blooped a single down the left line in shallow left field to drive in the final run of the inning.

The Bonnies got one run back in the third inning, and the score remained the same until the bottom of the seventh when Sloniger singled to score Weisenseel and two more runs scored on bases-loaded walks.

Penn State will conclude its season with four road games starting Tuesday at Villanova at 3 p.m. Penn State will then play three games at Iowa Thursday-Saturday.

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Notes: Shea Sbranti has been hit by pitches a team-high 12 times this season, the fourth most by a Nittany Lion in a single-season all-time … Penn State's seven-run second matched its season-high for runs in an inning (at Elon 2/17; Michigan State 5/4).