Penn State baseball (23-22, 10-8 Big Ten) was blown out by Georgetown (28-19, 7-8 Big East) 9-0 Tuesday night at Prince George’s Stadium in Maryland.

The Nittany Lions came in riding a six-game winning streak, but they couldn’t continue their momentum against the Hoyas. Georgetown jumped Penn State for nine runs total in the third and fourth innings, and Rob Cooper’s squad was never able to recover.

With seven games, including six within the conference, left in the season, Penn State sits in sixth place in the Big Ten.

How It Happened

Penn State handed the ball to right-hander Tommy Molsky for this one, while Collin Garner took the hill for the Hoyas.

Our lineup tonight! @TommyMolsky on the mound!

HoyaVision/ https://t.co/mruCcnW5qv
https://t.co/QcFEUgU1sa
https://t.co/d4JjnN78RB#WeAre pic.twitter.com/znUI8KLw0v

— Penn State Baseball (@PennStateBASE) May 10, 2022

The two starters kept the game scoreless through the first two innings. While Garner set the Nittany Lions down 1-2-3 in the top of the third, things started to unravel for Molsky in the bottom half of the inning. In an inning that included a wild pitch and an error from the Nittany Lions, run-scoring hits from Jake Hyde, Ethan Stern, and Tony Barreca pushed three runs across the plate to give the Hoyas a 3-0 lead.

After Garner set the Nittany Lions down in order in his final inning of action, the bottom of the fourth proved to be brutal for Penn State. Andrew Ciufo ripped an RBI double to right-center field to score Cam Meyer, who reached on a single. That would mark the end of Molsky’s day, as the right-hander gave up eight hits and five runs.

Ryan Partridge relieved Molsky and struggled mightily, giving up two hits and walking three batters en route to being charged with four runs in the inning. Partridge wasn’t able to record an out during his time in the game, and he was pulled in favor of Carson Kohls. Kohls, who allowed two inherited runners to score (charged to Partridge), was finally able to put the disastrous inning to bed when he induced a Ciufo groundout. The Hoyas took a 9-0 lead into the fifth inning.

Left-hander Andrew Williams came on in relief of Garner in the fifth inning and got two outs before Anthony Redfern came in to get the final out of the inning for the Hoyas.

It wasn’t until the eighth inning that the Nittany Lions would get a runner to third base. After back-to-back walks to Cole Bartels and Matt Wood, Josh Spiegel would advance Bartels to third on a flyout. However, Georgetown pitcher Michael Willis got Johnny Piacentino to pop out to second base and then struck out Kyle Hannon to keep Penn State scoreless after eight innings.

Penn State wouldn’t get any runs back in the ninth, and Georgetown came away with a 9-0 win.

Takeaways

• Tommy Molsky and Ryan Partridge just didn’t have it Tuesday night, folks. Both right-handers struggled out on the mound, combining to give up 10 hits, nine runs, and four walks. It continues what has been a rough season for both pitchers, as Molsky and Partridge entered the game with ERAs of 6.64 and 5.71, respectively.
• What happened to the bats? After totaling 55 runs during its six-game winning streak, Penn State’s offense was completely shut down by Georgetown’s pitching staff. In fact, the Nittany Lions mustered just two hits the entire game.
• Despite the loss, two Penn State relievers — Carson Kohls and Chad Rogers — turned in effective outings. The duo combined to toss five scoreless innings and prevented the game from spiraling further.

What’s Next

Penn State will head to Columbus to start a three-game series with Ohio State beginning on Friday, May 13. First pitch of game one is set for 6:05 p.m. and can be seen on BTN+.