UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The 2020 Penn State baseball season was abbreviated, but not without highlights.
The Nittany Lions' 10-5 start gave them their second consecutive season with at least 10 wins in their first 15 games (2019; 12-3), marking a feat not accomplished since 1985 (10-5) and 1986 (10-5).
Penn State and Miami (Ohio) ultimately played the final game of the 2020 NCAA Division I baseball season on Thursday, March 12, as the afternoon game started before decisions to suspend and ultimately cancel the season were finalized.
Big Ten Leaders
- Penn State was tied with Iowa and Maryland with a league-best 10-5 overall record. All of the games were non-conference games.
- As a team, Penn State led the Big Ten in eight NCAA-sanctioned statistical categories.
- Penn State led the conference in doubles per game (2.00), ERA (2.16), hits allowed per nine innings (6.33), stolen bases (33), stolen bases per game (2.20), strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.63), WHIP (1.01) and walks allowed per nine innings (2.78).
Missing Home
- The 2020 season heartbreakingly ended before a single game could be played in Medlar Field at Lubrano Park.
- It might be the first time Penn State baseball has not played at least home game since the late 1800's when it did not field a team on an annual basis. The Penn State baseball record book indicates one game played in 1918 against Carnegie Tech, but does not list a date or location. The 1920 school-wide Penn State yearbook, La Vie, claims that there was no team in 1918 due to World War I and the outbreak of the flu.
Shortened Season
- Penn State's 15 games played is its fewest since playing just 14 in 1962. However, back in the 1960's, playing less than 20 regular season games was typical for northern schools. The Nittany Lions' season did not begin until April and concluded on June 1 with a loss in the NCAA District 2 Playoffs.
- Penn State had played at least 20 games a season since 1963 and at least 39 games per season since 1983.
- Penn State did not play a conference game in a season for the first time since 1982.
Pitching Prowess
- Penn State ranked sixth in the NCAA with a 1.01 WHIP and also eighth with a 2.16 team ERA. The Nittany Lions also rank 15th with 6.33 hits allowed per nine innings and 18th with a 3.63 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
- RHP Bailey Dees ranked seventh in the Big Ten with a 1.88 ERA, fourth with a 0.87 WHIP and second with 4.40 hits allowed per nine innings.
- RHP Conor Larkin ranked sixth in the Big Ten with a 1.69 ERA, seventh with 28 strikeouts and eighth with 11.81 strikeouts per nine innings.
Stealing Bases
- Penn State stole 33 bases on 34 attempts (97.1 percent) this season, ranking the Nittany Lions as the most successful base stealing team in country among teams with 30 or more stolen bases.
- Penn State's 33 stolen bases ranked 21st in the NCAA, and its 2.20 stolen bases per game ranked 14th.
- Penn State's 2.20 stolen bases per game were a record pace.
- Despite playing 34 fewer games than in 2019, Penn State was only 15 stolen bases shy of last year's total of 48.
Offense Clicking
- Penn State was among the conference leaders offensively, ranking second in on-base percentage (.394), slugging (.422), triples (7), doubles (30), third in batting average (.289) and walks (77), and fourth in scoring (6.7 runs/game) and runs (100).
- Gavin Homer and Johnny Piacentino both batted .400 to rank tied for seventh in the Big Ten.
- Piacentino's .511 on-base percentage ranked sixth in the Big Ten, while Homer followed in seventh (.500).
- Homer's .689 slugging percentage ranked sixth in the conference, while Piacentino followed in seventh (.686).
- Homer ranked third in the Big Ten with 17 RBIs.
- Homer and Curtis Robison had six doubles each to rank sixth in the Big Ten.
No-Hitter
- RHP Bailey Dees, LHP Tyler Shingledecker and RHP Mason Mellott held Navy hitless for 10.1 innings for the first combined no-hitter and first extra-inning no-hitter in program history.
- The no-hitter was the 10th in Penn State history and first since Steven Hill no-hit Iowa in 2012.
Touching Home
- Penn State's 81 runs scored in the first 10 games of the year were its most since scoring 105 runs in the first 10 games of the 2000 season.
- Penn State scored 10 or more runs four times in the first 10 games of the season, doing so for the first time since scoring double-digits six times in the first 10 games of the 2000 season.
- Penn State scored 10 or more runs four times all of last season.
Hit Parade
- In the first three weeks of the season Penn State, posted two of its highest hit totals in recent years.
- Penn State's 19 hits against Princeton (2/28) were its most since totaling the same at Houston Baptist on March 9, 2013.
- Penn State's 18 hits against Monmouth (2/16) were its most in a game since also totaling 18 against Rutgers on May 2, 2015.
Walk-Off
- Penn State closed its series with Wagner on a walk-off, three-run home run by Curtis Robison.
- It was Penn State's first walk-off win since defeating UMass Lowell on a Ryan Ford single on Mar. 17, 2019.
- It was Penn State's first walk-off home run since Gavin Homer slugged one over the fence at the USA Baseball NTC on Feb. 24, 2019 to down Fairfield.
- It was Penn State's first extra inning win since defeating Rutgers in the 11th inning on May 4, 2019.
Mellott on Stopper of the Year Watch List
- Junior RHP Mason Mellott was named to the initial watch list for the 16th Annual National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Stopper of the Year Award.
- The award was to be given to the top relief pitcher in NCAA Division I baseball. Mellott was one of six Big Ten pitchers and 70 overall to be placed on the preseason watch list.
- Mellott ranks tied for sixth on Penn State's career saves list (Jeff Emerlich, 1993-96) with nine after posting five in 2019. He was one of the most crucial members of the Nittany Lion pitching staff that year, totaling 63.0 innings in relief and posting a 2.43 ERA that led the team and ranked third in the Big Ten. Mellott also led the team with six wins, which were the most by a Penn State reliever since at least 2004. He also ranked among the top-10 in the conference with 2.00 walks allowed per nine innings (5th), a 3.71 strikeout-to-walk ratio (9th) and a 1.16 WHIP (10th).