Baseball Welcomes Georgetown For Home-Opening SeriesBaseball Welcomes Georgetown For Home-Opening Series

Kyle Hannon

Baseball Welcomes Georgetown For Home-Opening Series

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The Penn State baseball team hosts Georgetown for its home-opening series at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park. The Nittany Lions and Hoyas are set to play a three-game series beginning on Friday, currently scheduled for 5 p.m. Saturday will be a 1 p.m. first pitch followed by Sunday's series finale at noon.
 
The Nittany Lions, led by head coach Rob Cooper, are 9-5 after winning two of three games against Brown. In Friday's game, Daniel Ouderkirk struck out 10 batters and PSU rallied for three runs in the ninth. In Saturday's first game, PSU hit five homers, led by Jay Harry's two, including a two-run walk-off in the 12th inning.
 
Season and single game tickets for the 2023 Penn State baseball season are available here. Season tickets are $75 for adults and free for youth (ages 12 and under).
 
The 2023 Penn State baseball season is presented by The Family Clothesline.
 
PARKING
Parking for Penn State Baseball games at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park will be available at the following locations beginning two hours prior to the start of each game:


Please visit the 2023 Baseball Parking page for additional information.
 
Non-football event parking is managed by Penn State Transportation Services. For more information on parking for this event, please email parking@psu.edu or call 814-865-1436. 
 
PROMOTIONS
Friday – 4 for $24 (4 tickets, 4 drinks, 4 hot dogs), Poster Giveaway
Saturday – Postgame Autographs, Trading Card Giveaway
Sunday – Postgame Kids Run The Bases
 
FOLLOW ALONG

 
PROBABLE STARTERS*
Friday (5 p.m.)  – PSU: RHP Daniel Ouderkirk (1-1, 3.20 ERA) vs. Georgetown: RHP Cody Jensen (3-1, 4.91 ERA)
Saturday (1 p.m.)  – PSU: TBA vs. Georgetown: TBA
Sunday (noon) – PSU: TBA vs. Georgetown: TBA
 
*subject to change
 
LEADING OFF

  • Penn State welcomes Georgetown for its home-opening series at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park.
  • The Nittany Lions are 27-10 all-time against the Hoyas.
  • In the last meeting, the Nittany Lions fell 9-0 in the Bowie Baysox Stadium.
  • Penn State won the first two games of its series against Brown last weekend.
  • The Nittany Lions won 7-6 last Friday as Daniel Ouderkirk struck out 10 batters and PSU rallied for three runs in the ninth.
  • Penn State earned a 6-4 win in 12 innings in Saturday's first game. Jay Harry hit two homers, including a walk-off two run shot, while Thomas Bramley, Kyle Hannon and Bobby Marsh all added solo homers.
  • Hannon is tied for the Big Ten lead with 10 steals, good for 25th in the country.
  • Ouderkirk paces the Big Ten in strikeouts (35) and strikeouts per nine innings (16.02), while sitting 11th and 10th in the nation in those categories, respectively.
  • Ouderkirk has made three straight starts of 10+ strikeouts, the first time a Nittany Lion has done that since at least 2004.

 
SCOUTING GEORGETOWN

  • Georgetown is led by head coach Edwin Thompson in his third season.
  • In 2022, he led the Hoyas to the program's first Big East Championship appearance since 2018.
  • The Hoyas are 11-6, coming off a 10-0 win over Coppin State on Wednesday.
  • Georgetown also took two of three games in last weekend's series against Hartford.
  • The Hoyas are batting .277 as a team with 62 extra-base hits including 22 homers.
  • Zaid Walker paces the team with a .359 average and five steals, while Austin Kretzschmar is batting .311 with 19 hits and 14 RBI.
  • Michael Eze leads the squad with 21 hits and five homers to go with 14 RBI, while Ubaldo Lopez and Jake Hyde both have four homers and 15 RBI.
  • Georgetown has a 4.47 team ERA and is allowing a .235 opposing batting average.
  • Jake Bloss leads the rotation with a 1.69 ERA and 25 strikeouts in 21.1 innings.
  • Cody Jensen is 3-1 with a 4.91 ERA, while Andrew Williams is 1-1 with a 2.86 ERA.

 
AGAINST THE HOYAS

  • Penn State takes on Georgetown for the 38th time in program history.
  • The teams met last season with the Hoyas winning 9-0 at the Bowie Baysox Stadium. Carson Kohls and Chad Rogers combined to hold Georgetown scoreless over the final five innings.
  • Penn State has won 17 of the last 19 matchups.

 
NITTANY LIONS RETURN EXPERIENCED PITCHING STAFF

  • The Nittany Lions welcome back an experienced pitching staff.
  • Penn State pitchers had a strong start to the 2023 season at No. 22 Miami.
  • The Nittany Lions' starting pitchers, Travis Luensmann, Daniel Ouderkirk and Tommy Molsky, combined to throw 13.1 innings, allowing eight hits and four earned runs, while striking out 13 batters.
  • The three starters recorded a 2.70 ERA and held Miami hitters to a .170 batting average.
  • Penn State set a program record with 503 strikeouts in 2022 as six members of the staff recorded at least 40 strikeouts.
  • The Nittany Lions return 406 of their 503 strikeouts (81 percent) from last year.
  • Penn State is one of nine Power Five programs, and the only Big Ten school, returning 400+ strikeouts from last season.
  • Among Power Five schools returning 400+ strikeouts, only Wake Forest (92%) returns a higher percentage of strikeouts returning.
  • In 49 of 55 games last season, Penn State's starting pitcher was a Pennsylvania native.
  • Penn State's pitching staff takes a versatile approach with eight different pitchers recording both a start and a save in 2022.
  • Since 2016, eight Penn State pitchers have been selected in the MLB Draft, including Conor Larkin (9th round, Toronto Blue Jays), Kyle Virbitsky (17th round, Oakland A's) and Bailey Dees (18th round, New York Yankees) in 2021.

 
OUDERKIRK'S STRONG START

  • Grad student Daniel Ouderkirk, a West Virginia transfer, has made an immediate impact in the Penn State rotation.
  • He is 1-1 with a 3.20 ERA in four starts, while limiting opposing hitters to a .189 average.
  • Ouderkirk has tallied 35 strikeouts in 19.2 innings and has multiple strikeouts in 12 innings this season.
  • The 6-9 righty leads the Big Ten in total strikeouts (35) and strikeouts per nine innings (16.02). He ranks 11th in the nation in total strikeouts and 10th in strikeouts per nine.
  • Ouderkirk has recorded at least 10 strikeouts in his last three starts: 11 vs. Northern Illinois, 11 vs. Dartmouth and 10 vs. Brown. He allowed just one earned run in each start against NIU and Dartmouth.
  • Ouderkirk became the first Nittany Lion with three straight starts of 10+ strikeouts since at least 2004.
  • He is one of four Division I pitchers with multiple starts of 11+ strikeouts and 1 or less earned run this season and one of five DI pitchers with three-straight 10+ strikeout starts this year.

 
TRANSFERS PROVIDE SPARK

  • The Nittany Lions welcomed four transfers to the program ahead of the 2023 season and all four have had strong starts to the year.
  • Joining Ouderkirk are grad students Thomas Bramley (Mount St. Mary's) and Grant Norris (Duke) and freshman Bobby Marsh (Florida Atlantic).
  • Through three starts, Ouderkirk has 35 strikeouts in 19.2 innings and an opposing batting average of .189. His 35 strikeouts pace the Big Ten.
  • Fellow grad student Thomas Bramley has started all 14 games, splitting time between catcher, outfield and designated hitter. Bramley is batting a team-high .340 with 17 hits, including three doubles, a triple and two homers, and has drawn a team-high 15 walks.  He recently snapped a 10-game hit streak, but has reached base in 17 straight games, dating back to 2022.
  • The Mount St. Mary's transfer was tabbed as the No. 19 catcher in the nation in the D1Baseball preseason player rankings.
  • Norris has started nine games at third base after transferring from Duke.
  • Norris hit his first homer as a Nittany Lion off the foul pole in game two against Northern Illinois and is batting .300 with two homers and 10 RBI.
  • Freshman Bobby Marsh, a Bellefonte native and transfer from Florida Atlantic, has played in 10 games and started six.
  • He owns three doubles, two homers and five RBI.
  • Marsh launched his first career homer against Holy Cross and added a solo homer against Brown.

 
BALANCED BATS

  • The Nittany Lion offense has benefitted from multiple strong contributors this season.
  • Thomas Bramley leads the team with a .340 average, 15 walks, a .500 on-base percentage and a 1.060 OPS.
  • Bramley is one of five Big Ten players with both an on-base percentage (.500) and slugging percentage (.560) above .500.
  • Jay Harry is batting .310 with a team-high 18 hits, including four doubles and a triple, and is tied for the team lead with three homers.
  • Tayven Kelley is hitting .302 with six doubles and two homers to go with nine RBI, while Grant Norris owns a .300 average with two homers and 10 RBI.
  • Kyle Hannon is tied with Harry for the team lead with three homers while pacing the team with 15 runs and 10 steals.
  • Hannon leads the Big Ten in total steals (10) and steals per game (0.71), while ranking 25th in the nation in total steals.

 
OPENING WIN OVER MIAMI

  • Penn State opened the 2023 season with a 9-5 win over Miami on February 17.
  • The Hurricanes were ranked 22nd in the D1Baseball Poll and No. 8 in the Baseball America rankings.
  • The Nittany Lions earned the program's first win over Miami and collected the program's first win over a ranked non-conference opponent since an 8-7 win over No. 21 Duke in 2019.
  • Travis Luensmann threw five innings in the win, allowing just one run on two hits and striking out four.
  • Penn State tallied 16 hits, including six Nittany Lions with multiple hits.
  • Billy Gerlott and Johnny Piacentino each had three hits, while Kyle Hannon and Tayven Kelley launched solo homers.

 
UP NEXT

  • Penn State welcomes Binghamton for a mid-week matchup on Tuesday, March 21 for a 5 p.m. first pitch.
  • The Nittany Lions open Big Ten play at Michigan on March 24-26.