UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The Penn State baseball team is set to host Kent State on Tuesday at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park. First pitch is set for 5:30 p.m. The game will be broadcast on B1G+ and is free admission for all ages. Tuesday is Dollar Dog Night and Greek Night.
Fans are encouraged to get to the stadium early to get their Dollar Dogs.
Penn State, led by Mike Gambino, is 18-14 after taking one of three games at Indiana last weekend. PSU launched 11 homers over the three games.
Kent State, coached by Jeff Duncan, is 16-17 overall. The Golden Flashes won one of three games against Toledo this past weekend.
For updates on the Penn State baseball team, please check @pennstatebase on X and Instagram.
The 2024 Penn State baseball season is presented by The Family Clothesline.
FOLLOW ALONG
- B1G+
- Listen (1450 AM/103.7 FM)
- Live Stats
- Game Notes
- Free Admission
- Dollar Dog Night, Greek Night
PROMOTIONS/BALLPARK ITEMS
- Tuesday is Dollar Dog Night and Greek Night.
- Dollar Dog Night features $1 hot dogs.
- Hot dogs are a maximum of four per transaction.
- Greek Night welcomes the Penn State fraternity and sorority communities.
- All concessions items at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park this season are cashless transactions.
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:
- Porter North and Jordan East
- Free with valid Penn State parking permits
- $5.50 prepaid parking is available through ParkMobile - https://psu.parkmobile.io/medlar-field-lubrano-park. Prepayment is available through 11:59 p.m. the day prior to each event.
- $10 day-of-event (pay station or Park Mobile app – zone no. 95112
- Baseball Parking Interactive Map
- Please visit the 2024 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.
LEADING OFF
- Penn State welcomes Kent State for a midweek contest on Tuesday.
- The Nittany Lions trail 9-8 in the all-time series.
- Penn State took one of three games in its series at Indiana.
- The Nittany Lions combined for 27 runs, 30 hits and 11 homers.
- On Friday, six Nittany Lions combined to launch seven homers.
- The seven homers in a game and six different players homering in a game are both PSU's most since at least 2004.
- Adam Cecere has homered in four-straight games, entering Tuesday, including homers in each of the games in Bloomington.
- Cecere leads the Big Ten in both total homers (12) and homers in conference games (6), while pacing the league in OPS (1.255) and slugging (.755).
- J.T. Marr had a pair of multi-hit games at IU, raising his season total to 18, and sits second in the Big Ten in both average (.418) and hits per game (1.75).
- Bobby Marsh ranks fifth in the Big Ten in average (.389), while leading the conference in average (.479) and hits (23) in conference contests.
SCOUTING KENT STATE
- Kent State is led by head coach Jeff Duncan, in his 11th season.
- Under Duncan, the Golden Flashes own 337 wins.
- Former Nittany Lion Ryan Sloniger (2016-19) is an assistant coach at Kent State.
- In his PSU career, Sloniger appeared in 166 games (162 starts) with 137 hits, 81 RBI and 63 runs. He tallied 30 doubles, five triples and nine homers. He ranks fourth all-time at Penn State with 1,080 putouts.
- The Golden Flashes are batting .259 and averaging 7.7 runs per game.
- Tim Orr leads the squad with a .358 average to go with six doubles, seven homers and 28 RBI.
- Josh Johnson is hitting .333 with a team-best 41 hits, nine doubles and 34 RBI to go with seven homers and 18 steals.
- Jake Casey, son of former Pittsburgh Pirate Sean Casey, leads Kent State with eight homers.
- Kent State has a 6.18 team ERA and is allowing a .289 opponent average.
- Peyton Cariaco leads the team with 14 appearances and has a 2.29 ERA in 19.2 innings.
AGAINST THE GOLDEN FLASHES
- Penn State is 8-9 all-time against Kent State.
- The teams are set to meet for the first time since 2016, when the Golden Flashes won both midweek contests.
- In the last matchup, Willie Burger had two hits, including a two-run double.
DOLLAR DOG NIGHT RETURNS
- Penn State's Dollar Dog Nights became popular in 2023 and have returned with strong numbers in 2024.
- Tuesday's contest against Kent State will be the Nittany Lions' fourth Dollar Dog Night of the 2024 campaign.
- On April 9 against FDU, Penn State set a new attendance record with 4,902 fans, bettering the previous record of 3,946 vs. Northwestern in 2007, and a new Dollar Dog record as fans consumed 6,151 hot dogs. That previous record was 5,287 against West Virginia in 2023.
- On March 26 against Pitt, the Nittany Lions welcomed 3,505 fans to Medlar Field at Lubrano Park, Penn State baseball's fourth-largest attendance. The 3,505 fans downed 5,021 hot dogs.
- Across eight Dollar Dog Nights in 2023 and 2024, Penn State fans have consumed 26,586 hot dogs, averaging 3,323 per Dollar Dog Night.
THE MARR-CHINE KEEPS HITTING
- Grad student J.T. Marr's season average sits at .418 with a team-best 56 hits and 36 RBI.
- Marr ranks second in the Big Ten with his .418 average, while ranking 14th in the country.
- He also ranks eighth in the nation, and second in the Big Ten, averaging 1.75 hits per game.
- Marr holds 24th in the country, and third in the conference, with 56 total hits.
- He owns 18 multi-hit games, including seven against Big Ten opponents, and 11 multi-RBI games. Marr has two games with four hits and five games with three hits.
- Marr tied a PSU game record with three doubles against FDU last Tuesday.
- Among his 56 knocks, he has 10 doubles and six homers to go with 31 runs and a 1.076 OPS, good for ninth in the Big Ten. He has five homers and 17 RBI in conference play.
NEWCOMERS LEADING BALANCED LINEUP
- The Nittany Lions lead the Big Ten in slugging percentage (.510) and sac flies (25) and rank Top 5 in the conference in total home runs (47; 2nd), home runs per game (1.47; 2nd), runs per game (8.3; 3rd), batting average (.311; 3rd), on-base percentage (.409; 4th) and doubles per game (2.03; 5th).
- Penn State has five players with a .309 or better average, five with a .400+ on-base percentage and seven with a .429+ slugging percentage.
- Penn State and Indiana are the only Big Ten teams with seven players owning at least 24 RBI.
- The Nittany Lions' 47 home runs this year are its most since hitting 60 in 2000.
- Graduate student J.T. Marr paces the squad with a .418 average and 56 hits. He owns 10 doubles, six homers, 36 RBI and 31 runs.
- With a 23-of-48 start (.479) and 17 RBI at the plate in conference play, Bobby Marsh is hitting .389 with 44 hits, including nine doubles, one triple, three homers, 30 RBI and 26 runs. His .389 average sits fifth in the Big Ten, while he paces the league with his .479 average and 23 hits in Big Ten play.
- Holding a .386 average (17-of-44) in Big Ten play, Bryce Molinaro owns six homers, among 38 hits, and 28 RBI to go with a .309 average. He had two homers at Indiana (4/12).
- Graduate student Adam Cecere is hitting .355 with 39 hits, including eight doubles and 12 homers, 35 RBI and a team-best 35 runs. He has a team-high 28 walks and eight hit-by-pitches. He is hitting .367 in Big Ten play with six homers and 16 RBI.
- The Pennsylvania native has homered in each of the last four games entering Tuesday's game.
- He ranks first in Big Ten with a 1.255 OPS and slugging percentage (.755), while sitting second in on-base percentage (.500). He leads the conference in homers (12), homers per game (0.38) and home runs in conference play (6). He's also fifth in the conference in total walks (27) and third in walks per game (0.88).
- Cecere is one of 11 current Division I players with 44+ homers and 151+ RBI in their career. Among active DI players, Cecere is 14th in homers (44).
- Grant Norris has 34 hits, including six doubles and nine homers, 30 RBI and 24 runs.
- Norris collected his first career multi-homer game against Northwestern (4/6).
- Norris is tied fourth in the Big Ten with nine homers.
- Joe Jaconski is 10th in the Big Ten in walks (25) and owns 38 hits and 34 runs. He has five homers, including two to lead off games in the Indiana series.
INDIANA SERIES RECAP
- Penn State took one of three games in its series at Indiana.
- The Nittany Lions collected 27 runs and 30 hits, while blasting 11 homers, in the series.
- Bobby Marsh batted .462 with six hits, including a double and a homer, three RBI and four runs.
- Adam Cecere crushed three homers, one in each game, with six RBI and a .417 average.
- Joe Jaconski, J.T. Marr and Bryce Molinaro each launched two homers.
- In game one on Friday, six Nittany Lions combined to hit seven homers.
- The seven homers and the six different players homering are both Penn State's most in a game since at least 2004.
- In game two, Penn State jumped out to an 8-0 lead in the top of the second, including back-to-back homers by Marr and Cecere.
- Jaconski and Cecere both homered in game three.
NITTANY LIONS CLIMB RECORDS LISTS
- Senior Kyle Hannon already has 10 steals in 2024, including four in the series vs. Harvard.
- With 10 steals this year, Hannon has moved up to fourth all-time at Penn State with 44 career steals. He is currently six steals behind Doug Keener (50, 1984-87) for third place.
- Hannon ranks ninth in the Big Ten in total steals (10).
- Senior+ Tayven Kelley owns 12 career triples, tied third all-time at Penn State. He is tied with Michael Campo (1997-00) and Jordan Steranka (2009-12).
- Grad student Grant Norris' .545 career slugging percentage sits sixth all-time at Penn State, while sophomore Bobby Marsh's .543 slugging percentage is eighth all-time.
- Grad student Adam Cecere is tied ninth in a season at Penn State with 12 homers.