Penn State Baseball Rallies To Defeat Illinois 9-8
Penn State baseball (8-16, 3-4 Big Ten) took an unlikely win against Illinois (12-12, 4-6 Big Ten) without their typical Friday night starter, 9-8.
The Nittany Lions’ starting pitcher, Mason Horwat, struggled with his command and walked five batters in 1.2 innings, one of whom scored a run for Illinois. After Mason Butash cleaned up his second inning, Penn State found itself in a six-run deficit.
The Nittany Lions battled back, though. They really began in the fifth inning with a Preston Yaucher infield single. The lineup continued to pass the baton to the next man up and scored five runs to even the score.
It took until the eighth inning for Penn State to get its first lead from a Michael Anderson solo home run. Kyle Emmons closed it out to secure the first win of the weekend against a solid Illinois squad.
How It Happened
Horwat took the mound to open for Penn State and had some early trouble. He walked two of the first three batters he faced, and allowed a funky infield hit that bounced six inches in front of the plate. With bases loaded, Illinois’ five-hole skied a ball to Cohl Mercado to bring in the first run of the game.
Their second run came from Kyle Schupmann’s bat when he grounded a ball off the glove of Bryce Molinaro that trickled into the outfield. Horwat escaped the inning with a swinging bunt that he fired over to first.
Mercado kicked it off for Penn State with a single off the end of the bat into right field. He stole second and advanced to third on a ground ball to the right side, but Illinois’ starting pitcher, Mitch Dye, struck out Spencer Barnett before Mercado could make it the extra 90 feet.
Troubles continued for Horwat in the second. He walked two of the first three batters again, garnering an out from a sacrifice bunt, and then plunked the fourth batter he saw. With the bases loaded again, Horwat missed four straight sinkers away and walked in the third run for Illinois.
He produced a ground ball back to the mound, but did not throw home for the force out, and got the second out at second base. The next batter he faced was his last, as Collin Jennings singled up the middle, and Illinois possessed a 5-0 lead.
From one Mason to the next, Butash relieved Horwat. Jennings stole two bags on the basepath, one of them due to Butash’s negligence of him on second base. But, it didn’t mean much as Butash struck out Schupmann swinging.
Jayden Davis started a rally by reaching on an error following Molinaro’s groundout. Avery Smith passed the baton to Maddox McDonald after working a six-pitch walk, and McDonald did the same, but in seven pitches.
Despite excellent plate discipline in the two at-bats before, Yaucher grounded into a double play on the third pitch he saw.
Butash worked a much cleaner inning than his Mason-counterpart had in his 1.2 innings pitched. He struck out the first batter he faced and produced two hard-hit groundouts, one of which Molinaro made an excellent recovery-play on.
But Dye responded with an even better inning. He collected two strikeouts at the top of the order and got Anderson to pop out.
Heading into the fourth, Illinois picked up its sixth walk and fifth stolen base of the game, but Butash pitched to three fly outs and posted another scoreless frame.
Dye allowed the first extra-base hit of his outing to Bryce Molinaro, with one out, and Penn State finally turned in a run thanks to Davis’ fading line drive into right field, which got under Jennings’ glove. Davis pulled into third base with a stand-up triple, and Smith scored him with a groundout. Penn State still trailed, 6-2.
The Fighting Illini got a run with a solo home run, and Butash walked a batter with two outs, but caught him getting greedy at first to end the inning.
Yaucher brought the momentum from on the field into the batter’s box and chopped an infield single to third base. Mercado put runners on the corners for Anderson with a ripped single into right field. The designated hitter launched one down the left field line that was called foul, and when challenged by coach Mike Gambino, remained foul.
Nonetheless, Anderson got an RBI with a sac-fly to center field, and Penn State trailed by four runs. After Dye gave Porter a free pass to first, Dan Hartleb yanked him for lefty reliever, Sam Reed.
Reed, facing the lefty Barnett, allowed a first-pitch single into right field, and despite Jennings’ dart to home, Mercado got around the tag.
Molinaro kept the line moving with a single into right, loading the bases for Davis, who already had an RBI triple. The infielder ripped a single up the middle for another RBI, and Smith followed him up with a sac-fly to cut the deficit to one run.
McDonald worked another walk to load the bases for Yaucher, who started the inning with an infield single.
Yaucher dug out a ground ball to shortstop, whose throw pulled the first baseman off the bag. Just like that, Penn State knotted up the game.
Robert Brown III, who earned a 2.1-inning win on Wednesday, took the mound for Penn State. He allowed three consecutive one-out singles and lost the lead before getting pulled for Emmons. The reliever produced a double-play ball to end the inning.
Anderson led the sixth off for Penn State with a single, and Porter’s following fly out looked like it may have given them a lead, but it fell short at the warning track. Barnett went down looking, but Molinaro worked a walk to put Anderson in scoring position for Davis.
Davis got his third RBI of the night with a knock up the middle to score Anderson, and the score was tied up again. Kyle Remington replaced Reed and struck Smith out looking.
Emmons faced four batters in the seventh, striking out one, and generating two pop-outs to his middle infielders. The bottom half was just as quiet as Remington sat the Nittany Lions down in order.
The Fighting Illini got a baserunner in the eighth, with yet another walk by Nick Groves, but Smith canned him on a stolen base attempt for the third out.
With the score still even, Penn State had the heart of their order coming up with Anderson, Porter, and Barnett. Anderson blitzed the first pitch he saw and cranked it 412 feet over the right-center fence for a Penn State lead.
Gambino trotted Emmons back out for the ninth inning. He struck out his first batter faced, looking, produced a ground ball, and got the final out with a strike out, swinging.
Takeaways
- Colin Fitzgerald did not pitch for the Nittany Lions on Friday night. It’s reported that Fitzgerald, the usual Friday night starter, is dealing with an illness and was not able to pitch. Gambino opted for a bullpen game with the likes of Mason Horwat, Mason Butash, Robert Brown III, and Kyle Emmons.
- Illinois’ first six runs were scored on only three hits. It was given six free passes by Horwat, five walks, and one hit by pitch, which allowed the Fighting Illini to score six with just a few timely hits. The Fighting Illini, who are 3rd in the Big Ten in stolen bases, also put themselves in excellent positions by stealing six on the night.
- Jayden Davis came to the plate on three separate occasions with runners in scoring position and knocked in a run in each at-bat. It was both his first three-hit and three-RBI game of the season.
- After a hitless game on Wednesday, Michael Anderson came back hot with two hits. His second hit of the game was a lead-taking solo home run in the bottom of the eighth. It was his 11th home run of the season. Anderson only needs nine more to break Penn State’s single-season record.
What’s Next?
The Nittany Lions look to grab their first weekend series win against Illinois at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 28. The game will be broadcast on BTN+.
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