Baseball Battles No. 14 North Carolina On WednesdayBaseball Battles No. 14 North Carolina On Wednesday

Anthony Steele

Baseball Battles No. 14 North Carolina On Wednesday

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The Penn State baseball team visits No. 14 North Carolina for a non-conference matchup on Wednesday. First pitch is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. at Bryson Field at Boshamer Stadium. The game will be broadcast on ACCNX.
 
The Nittany Lions, led by head coach Rob Cooper, are 7-3 after a 3-1 weekend in Cary to begin March. Penn State swept its Saturday doubleheader against Wagner (17-6) and Dartmouth (8-2), before splitting its series against Holy Cross, falling 11-5 on Sunday and winning 15-2 on Monday.
 
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.
 
FOLLOW ALONG

PROBABLE STARTERS*
Wednesday (1:30 p.m.)  – PSU: RHP Steven Miller (1-1, 1.93 ERA) vs. UNC: TBA
 
*subject to change

LEADING OFF

  • Penn State meets #14 North Carolina for its first midweek game of the 2023 season.
  • The Nittany Lions match up for the 14th time between the schools. The last series was played in 2007 when Penn State earned a 3-2 win over No. 1 North Carolina in the Saturday game.
  • Penn State is coming off a 3-1 weekend with one win in each game against Wagner, Dartmouth and Holy Cross.
  • In the win over Wagner, Tayven Kelley, Grant Norris and Josh Spiegel all homered.
  • Daniel Ouderkirk struck out 11 batters in the win over Dartmouth, becoming the first Nittany Lion since 2019 with 10+ strikeouts in back-to-back starts.
  • In Monday's win over Holy Cross, Ben Kailher hit a grand slam and drove in five runs, while Bobby Marsh launched a two-run homer.
  • Tayven Kelley tallied four doubles and a homer on the weekend.
  • Ouderkirk ranks second in the Big Ten with 25 strikeouts and is one of three DI pitchers with multiple starts of 10+ strikeouts and 1 or less earned run this season.

 
SCOUTING NORTH CAROLINA

  • Head Coach Scott Forbes is in his third year leading the program and 22nd season on the UNC coaching staff.
  • The Tar Heels, ranked No. 14 by D1Baseball, are 9-3 this season.
  • North Carolina has won five-straight games, including a three-game sweep over Stony Brook this past weekend.
  • UNC is batting .289 as a team, led by Tomas Frick's .388 average. He also has four homers and 16 RBI.
  • The Tar Heels rank 11th in the country with 25 homers and eighth with 82 walks.
  • Mac Horvath has seven homers and 14 RBI, while Jackson Van De Brake has six homers and 16 RBI.
  • Outfielder Vance Honeycutt was selected first-team Preseason All-America by D1Baseball and owns four homers and 12 RBI.
  • UNC has a 3.39 staff ERA and is holding hitters to a .207 average.
  • Matthew Matthijs (1.93), Cameron Padgett (1.00), Ben Peterson (1.08) and Matt Poston (0.00) all have ERA's under 2.00 while making five or more appearances.

 
AGAINST THE TAR HEELS

  • Penn State meets North Carolina for the 14th matchup between the programs.
  • The teams last played in 2007 in a three-game series in Chapel Hill, with Penn State earning a 3-2 win over No. 1-ranked North Carolina in the second game of the series.
  • Penn State played UNC in an NCAA Regional in 2000, winning both games on the final day of the regional to advance to the Super Regionals.

 
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.

 
LUENSMANN'S STRONG START

  • Junior Travis Luensmann has enjoyed a strong start to the 2023 campaign.
  • He has a 3-0 record and a 2.40 ERA and has limited opposing hitters to a .167 average.
  • Luensmann opened the season for the Nittany Lions, starting against Miami.
  • The junior fired five innings, allowing just one run on two hits, while striking out four and holding Miami hitters to a .125 average.
  • He followed that with five innings against Northern Illinois, giving up one run on four hits and striking out three and got the win against Wagner, allowing two runs in five innings and striking out five.
  • Luensmann entered the season as the No. 110 starting pitcher by D1Baseball in its preseason player rankings.

 
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.
  • Grad student pitcher Daniel Ouderkirk, a West Virginia transfer, earned his first win as a Nittany Lion in game two against Northern Illinois.
  • Ouderkirk struck out a career-high 11 batters in seven innings, giving up just one run and three hits.
  • Ouderkirk became the first Nittany Lion with 10+ strikeouts in a game since Kyle Virbitsky's 12 strikeouts against Minnesota on May 29, 2021.
  • He followed that with 11 strikeouts in 5.1 frames against Dartmouth, joining Dante Biasi (13 vs. UMass Lowell, 3/15/19; 12 vs. Minnesota, 3/23/19) as the only PSU pitchers since 2004 with 10+ strikeouts in back-to-back starts.
  • Through three starts, Ouderkirk has 25 strikeouts in 15.2 innings and an opposing batting average of .161. His 25 strikeouts rank second in the Big Ten.
  • Fellow grad student Thomas Bramley has started all 10 games, splitting time between catcher, outfield and designated hitter.
  • Bramley is batting .333 with 12 hits, including three doubles and a homer, and has drawn a team-high 10 walks.
  • The Mount St. Mary's transfer was tabbed as the No. 19 catcher in the nation in the D1Baseball preseason player rankings.
  • Grant 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 six games and started two. He's batting .333 with two doubles, a homer and two RBI.
  • Marsh launched his first career homer against Holy Cross.

 
BALANCED BATS

  • As a team, Penn State is hitting .315 (113-of-359) and has drawn 56 walks to contribute to a .414 on-base percentage.
  • Seven Nittany Lions own above a .300 average, eight Nittany Lions have at least 10 hits and four have at least seven RBI.
  • Tayven Kelley leads the team with a .375 average to go with a team-high 15 hits, including five doubles and four homers, 10 runs and nine RBI, and a 1.082 OPS.
  • After an 8-for-15 weekend in Cary, Johnny Piacentino is batting .351 with 13 hits and 10 runs, while Thomas Bramley and Billy Gerlott are both batting .333.
  • Grant Norris paces the team with 10 RBI, while Kelley, Norris and Kyle Hannon each have two homers.
  • Hannon leads the Big Ten with nine steals and ranks 10th in the country averaging 0.9 steals per game.

 
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

  • The Nittany Lions return to Cary, N.C. this weekend for a four-game, three-day series against Brown. The series begins on Friday, March 10 with a 2 p.m. first pitch. Saturday will feature a doubleheader, beginning at noon. Sunday's series finale will begin at 11 a.m.