BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Penn State pitcher Dante Biasi (Hazle Township, Pa.) struck out nine and allowed just two hits and a walk in 6.1 innings to lead Penn State to a 3-0 win over Indiana in Big Ten baseball action Friday evening at Bart Kaufman Field.
Penn State and Indiana will conclude the series Saturday with a doubleheader starting at 2:05 due expected in inclement weather Sunday.
RHP Mason Mellott (4) (State College, Pa.) completed Penn State's (16-9, 1-5 Big Ten) third combined shutout of the season, pitching the final 2.2 innings and allowing just one base runner on a hit by pitch for the save.
Left fielder Gavin Homer (Battle Creek, Mich), shortstop Conlin Hughes (Holly Springs, N.C.) and center fielder Jordan Bowersox (Winter Springs, Fla.) drove in the three Penn State runs, and right fielder Mac Hippenhammer (Fort Wayne, Ind.) scored two of them. Homer hit an RBI-double to score Hippenhammer in the third inning, Hughes hit his first home run since May of 2017 - also at Indiana – in the top of the seventh, and Bowersox drove in Hippenhammer from third on an infield hit in the top of the ninth.
Biasi's performance marked his seventh in eight starts on the year in which he allowed one or less earned run, and his fourth in which he struck out nine or more batters. The lone hits allowed came in the first and second innings. He then worked a perfect third, faced the minimum after hitting a batter in the fourth, retired the side 1-2-3 in the fifth, worked around a two-out walk in the sixth and retired the first batter of the seventh before being lifted for Mellott.
Mellott induced a pair of groundouts on seven pitches to finish the seventh, worked around a hit batter with a force-out at second and back-to-back strikeouts in the eighth and cruised through the ninth 1-2-3, striking out one more.
Indiana (17-12, 5-2 Big Ten) also pitched well as RHP Pauly Milto (4-3) allowed just one run on six hits and two walks and struck out eight.
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: Mac Hippenhammer played baseball against a team he previously played football against for the first time, as he played in Penn State football's game at Indiana on Oct. 20, 2018 … Head coach Rob Cooper is now one win shy of 400 for his career … Penn State's three shutouts this season are its most since earning three shutouts in 2016 … The shutout win was Penn State's first in a Big Ten game since defeating Maryland, 2-0, on April 30, 2016, and first shutout win over Indiana since April 30, 2006 … The save was the eighth of Mason Mellott's career, moving him up to a three-way tie for seventh in program history with Kevin Damiano (2000-03) and Josh Palm (2002-05) … With 12 strikeouts for the game, Penn State has struck out nine or more batters in 20 out of 25 games this season and 10 or more in its last three games.