After having a mid-week contest against Kent State cancelled, the Nittany Lion baseball team took two games out of three from Illinois in their home opening weekend. The weekend also marked the beginning of Big Ten play for the squad as they ran their season record to (17-8).

In the home opener that began Big Ten play on Friday, the Lions dropped a close game to Illinois 7-6.  Sean Deegan led the game off with a home-run to deep right center propelling the squad to an early 5-0 lead. Illinois slowly chipped away at the lead in the later innings while Penn State’s bats cooled off.

In the middle game of the weekend series, the Lions edged out Illinois 3-1 behind a complete game gem from sophomore John Walter. Walter scattered seven hits while striking out nine to improve his season mark to (3-3).

In the rubber match of the series, the Lions cruised to a 13-4 victory behind the bat of Jordan Steranka. Steranka went 3-for-5 with six RBI’s including his Big Ten leading sixth home run of the year.  In the fourth inning, the Lions broke a 3-3 tie exploding for eight runs to take a 11-3 lead that they would not surrender.

The baseball team is clicking on all cylinders as they continue to produce runs and win games in a variety of fashions. The Lions host Kent State Tuesday evening before heading to Evanston, Illinois for a three-game weekend road trip against Northwestern.