Penn State baseball (12-24, 1-8 Big Ten) played at home Tuesday night against the Pitt Panthers (17-17, 7-11 ACC). This was the second meeting between the two teams this season and it ended much like the first the one — with a Nittany Lion loss on the diamond. It took until the ninth inning for Penn State to get a run across the plate in its 9-1 loss.

How It Happened

Schuyler Bates started for the Nittany Lions in this one and only lasted 3.1 innings in his outing. Pitt got on the board early in the first inning when Caleb Parry singled to right to give the Panthers a 1-0 lead after one.

A sloppy fourth inning on the field put Penn State in a hole that it could not recover from. A total of three wild pitches — two resulted in the only runs for Pitt in the inning — and two throwing errors made it a 4-0 game in favor of the Panthers heading into the bottom of the fourth inning.

A fielding error in the fifth inning resulted in two runs for Pitt to expand its lead to 6-0. Seemingly putting this game out of reach. The poor fielding continued in the next inning when an error from third baseman Logan Goodnight yielded another run for Pitt.

Then Pitt put the nail in the coffin three batters later when Nick Banman’s single to right field brought home to Panther baserunners. Penn State could not get anything going at the plate to keep pace with Pitt.

Finally, in the bottom of the ninth inning in a 9-0 ball game, Mason Nadeu singled to left field to spoil Pitt’s shut-out opportunity bringing home Goodnight. The Panthers eventually retired the last Nittany Lion batter to win this game and the season series against the Nittany Lions.

The Diamond Lions did themselves no favors tonight, committing five total errors in the field. The pitching staff gave up nine total runs Tuesday, but six of those were unearned runs. Penn State did outhit Pitt 10-8, but weren’t able to bring home many runners in this game on the way to a 9-1 loss.

Player Of The Game

Chris Gomez | Pitcher | Freshman

Gomez picked up the win Tuesday for the Panthers after coming in to the ball game in the second inning for starter Josh Mitchell. The Miami, FL native pitched 4.2 innings allowing zero runs while giving up only five hits. Gomez also picked up five strikeouts in his outing against the Nittany Lions.

What’s Next

Penn State will resume Big Ten play this weekend when Northwestern comes to town for a three-game series. The Nittany Lions will hope to win their first series win since March 9-11 against Sacramento State. Friday’s game is scheduled to start at 6:30 p.m and Saturday’s game will see the first pitch thrown at 6 p.m. Then Sunday’s matinee will begin at 1 p.m. to conclude the series.