UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.- With a great start, Penn State baseball is excited to keep the season rolling, as the team kicks off Big Ten conference play this weekend.
Penn State baseball is hosting the Minnesota Golden Gophers this weekend in a two-day, three-game series after weather altered the weekend schedule Friday.
The Nittany Lions are currently 13-3 and they sit at the top of the Big Ten in terms of overall record so far this season. Meanwhile, the Gophers, the reigning Big Ten regular season and tournament winners are currently 5-13 overall.
For the team, the recent success is due to the entire program buying into the winning attitude.
"Everyone truly believes every time we go out that we can beat anyone we play," senior catcher Ryan Sloniger said.
Head coach Rob Cooper echoed Sloniger about what makes this team such a strong one.
"You've got a bunch of guys that have really committed to making the culture strong," Cooper said.
Sloniger is back to being healthy, which Cooper feels has attributed to his recent batting success. He had hits in all three games of the UMass Lowell series and scored the game-winning run in the 10th inning Sunday. But it's not just his batting that Cooper is happy with.
"Ryan is a grinder. He plays a tough position," Cooper said. "When you're playing catcher, you've got to be able to separate your at-bats and play solid defense. And that's one thing that he's done. He's been really good back there, calming influence on our pitching staff. Now you're starting to see him find his groove offensively, and he's just got to keep working on it."
After acknowledging his slower start at the beginning of the season, Sloniger has been feeling and hitting a lot better.
"I feel really good. I feel locked in," Sloniger said. "I felt good after this past weekend. I'm ready to get going."
The pitching staff has also been really strong, with Dante Biasi pitching seven innings with 13 strikeouts last weekend.
"We're just worried about us, rather than the opponents we're facing and other lineups, we're just focusing on what we can control," Biasi said.
Sloniger feels that as good as Biasi has pitched already, he still has even more to show.
"We work together a lot. He's grown a lot as a pitcher, he's learning more and more every day. He gets better every day. Me and him are always on the same page," Sloniger said. "I don't think we've shown everyone our best stuff together with him on the mound. We're still getting there."
As for the likely pitching rotation this weekend, Cooper said that Biasi will pitch the first game, Bailey Dees will pitch the second game and Eric Mock will pitch the third.
The club house is very excited to get going this weekend.
"Guys are ready to go," Sloniger said. "From the start of the year, everyone's seen what we can do, we believe we can win."
