UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – LHP Dante Biasi (Hazle Township, Pa.) struck out 11 for Penn State but a pair of three-hit games by Maryland's AJ Lee and Taylor Wright led the Terrapins past the Nittany Lions in Big Ten baseball action Friday night at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park.
Due to the threat of inclement weather on Sunday, Penn State (18-19, 1-14 Big Ten) and Maryland (20-21, 7-6 Big Ten) will conclude the three-game series with Maryland with a doubleheader starting at 2 p.m. Saturday. Fans with tickets for the Sunday game or any other postponed game this season can redeem them at the State College Spikes box office for any other 2019 Penn State baseball game. Fans planning to bring their dogs to Bark in the Park Saturday are welcome to have their four-legged friends for both games. The first game will be First Responders Day featuring emergency vehicles on the concourse pregame, while the second will feature Sunday's planned Military Appreciation Day and postgame Kids Run the Bases.
Lee and Wright accounted for six of Maryland's eight hits on the night and both tallied a double. Lee also scored two runs and was driven in both times by Wright.
The Terrapin duo spoiled an otherwise stellar outing by Biasi (3-4), who raised his Big Ten-leading strikeout total to 90. The figure ranks as the ninth-most strikeouts in a season by a Nittany Lion pitcher and the most since his older brother Sal struck out 88 in 2017. He also struck out the side swinging in order in the fourth and struck out the side swinging in the sixth. For the night, he allowed three runs on six hits and two walks in six innings.
As a staff, the Nittany Lions struck out 16, with RHP Jared Freilich (Worcester, Mass.) and LHP Hutch Gagnon (Downington, Pa.) striking out two each and RHP Cole Bartels (Belmont, Mass.) striking out one. All three worked one inning.
Maryland first scored in the third inning, taking a 2-0 lead. Left fielder Caleb Walls singled to right, Lee followed with a double to left-center, and then right fielder Randy Bednar hit a sacrifice fly to center to score Walls and Wright hit an RBI-single up the middle to score Lee.
After two scoreless innings, Maryland put another run on the board for a 3-0 advantage in the top of the fifth, as Lee hit a single through the left side and Wright hit an RBI-double to the right-center gap to plate him.
Penn State responded in the bottom half of the frame with two runs. Kris Kremer (Hershey, Pa.) led off the inning with a walk and Mac Hippenhammer (Fort Wayne, Ind.) followed with a bunt-single down the third base line, and Ryan Sloniger (Punxsutawney, Pa.) delivered with a double to the wall in right-center to drive home both.
They were the only runs RHP Hunter Parsons (8-2) allowed though, as he struck out nine in seven innings of work, yielding just five hits and three walks. LHP Sean Fisher worked around a hit and a walk in the eighth and RHP John Murphy (8) struck out one in a perfect ninth for the save.
Maryland took advantage of a pair of miscues for two unearned runs in the seventh inning for the final margin.
The 2019 Penn State baseball season is presented by the Family Clothesline. Tickets are on sale online by clicking here or by calling the Medlar Field at Lubrano Park ticket office at 814-272-1711.
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NOTES: With 16 strikeouts total strikeouts for the game, Penn State has struck out nine or more batters in 30 out of 37 games this season … Penn State's 16 strikeouts were the most since striking out 17 against Minnesota on March 23 earlier this season … Freshman third baseman Justin Williams is on a five-game hitting streak … The three-run loss for Penn State was just its second