Penn State baseball (10-5) lost its final game of the year 5-1 to the Miami (Ohio) Redhawks (8-7) Thursday afternoon. The Nittany Lions mustered just one run off of six hits in what was a quiet day at the plate.

Following the news that the Big Ten was canceling all winter and spring sports for the remainder of the year due to the coronavirus, it became apparent that this matchup would be the last Penn State Athletics event of the 2019-2020 school year.

How It Happened

Bailey Dees got the start on the mound for the Nittany Lions and pitched great for the first five innings. No team scored a run in the game’s first five frames.

In the top of the sixth, freshman two-way player Johnny Piacentino crushed a solo home run to left field to give the Nittany Lions a 1-0 lead. Dees was unable to hold the Redhawks off at the bottom of the inning when Landon Stephens drove a three-run homer over the left-field fence to give Miami a 3-1 lead. Dees was unable to record an out in the sixth inning and was pulled in favor of Tyler Shingledecker.

The final line on Dees wasn’t his best — five innings, five hits, three runs allowed, and five strikeouts — but he kept his team in the game regardless.

From there, Shingledecker gave up his first run of the season after exiting the game in the bottom of the seventh inning. Mason Mellott allowed a run to score, but Shingledecker was responsible for the runner on base so the run was charged to him. Mellott then gave up a run of his own in the bottom of the eighth to give the Redhawks a 5-1 lead.

Penn State’s offense was unable to mount a comeback and wound up being a step behind all game long. There would be no late-inning heroics this time around, causing the Nittany Lions to fall 5-1.

Takeaways

• The offense continued its early-season inconsistency with a no-show performance this time around. There was simply no support at all for the pitching staff.
• After a promising 10-5 start to the season, Penn State will be unable to continue on due to the abrupt cancellation of the season. Its seniors who were playing in their final season will now need to deal with this being the final game of their college careers, barring a potential eligibility change by the NCAA.
• A takeaway from such a short season can be the performance of the pitching staff. Penn State’s staff ERA is near the top of the rankings in all of college baseball and certainly became one of the silver linings in an abruptly short season.

What’s Next?

This was Penn State’s final game of the season due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Nittany Lions will be back in action next season and attempt to build off of the early-season promise they showed this spring.