Penn State baseball (12-3, 2-1 Big Ten) bounced back after its comeback fell short on Tuesday to secure a series split against Georgetown (7-10, 0-0 Big East) with an 11-6 win at Capital One Park in Tysons, Virginia.

The Nittany Lions put together a four-run third inning, and their bats didn’t look back while Paxton Kling notched five hits.

How It Happened

After falling behind big early in the series opener, Penn State starter Skip Shenosky needed to put up zeroes early. After the offense stranded a pair in the first, Shenosky sat down the Hoyas 1-2-3 in each of the first two innings.

The Nittany Lions took the early lead in the third. A pair of walks to open the inning put two on the bags for Kling, who lined an RBI double to open the scoring. Bryce Molinaro followed him with an RBI single before stealing second. With two in scoring position and one out, Cole Wagner made it 4-0 with a two-run single.

Georgetown made a quick pitching change to try and stop the bleeding, but reliever Andrew Jergins walked the first two batters he faced in the fourth. After a pair of stolen bases, a Kling sacrifice fly and Molinaro RBI single stretched the lead to 6-0 in the fourth.

In the fifth, Jack Porter drew a walk with two outs to set up Nate Voss, who drilled his third home run of the season to left-center field, making it 8-0.

Shenosky pitched to contact and gave Penn State a much-needed strong start, tossing four no-hit innings before handing it over to Ryan Weatherwax. The no-hitter came to an end quickly, as Georgetown’s Ashtin Gilio led off the bottom of the fifth with a home run. A pair of errors led to two more runs, cutting Penn State’s lead to five after five innings.

Back-to-back doubles by Ryan Weingartner and Kling got a run back immediately in the sixth, with Kling coming around to score on a Wagner RBI groundout later in the inning. Weatherwax stranded a pair in the bottom half to keep it 10-3 after six.

Jesse Jaconski led off the seventh with a solo home run for Penn State, his fourth of the season. With an 11-3 lead, the Nittany Lions looked for the extra runs to end the game early but stranded a pair of runners in back-to-back innings.

After the seventh-inning stretch, freshman Sean Williams relieved Weatherwax, making his collegiate debut. He tossed a pair of 1-2-3 innings before handing it over to Carson Renner. Renner into trouble in the ninth, walking two and hitting a pair of batters. He was eventually pulled for Anthony Steele after Georgetown scored three and loaded the bases with two outs.

With the tying run on deck, Steele struck out Keith Savoy Jr. for his first save of the season. Shenosky picked up his first win of the season with his strong outing to start.

Takeaways

• Penn State will never be out of any game with its offense. The Nittany Lions are averaging 10.4 runs per game and have now scored double digits in 10 of their 15 games.
• Penn State hasn’t had a Big Ten Player of the Year in baseball since Mike Campo in 2000. Could Paxton Kling contend to be the first in a quarter-century? After going five-for-five with three RBI, Kling is slashing .343/.447/.719 with seven homers and 23 RBI in his first 15 games as a Nittany Lion. Among qualified hitters in the Big Ten, Kling is 17th in the Big Ten in OPS, 14th in slugging percentage, and tied for fourth in home runs. It might be a long shot, but hey, we’re just saying.
• Skip Shenosky struggled to enter play, but his four shutout innings today should bode well as Mike Gambino searches for a third solidified starter in the rotation.

What’s Next?

Penn State returns to conference action and kicks off a three-game weekend series on the road against Northwestern at 4 p.m. on Friday, March 14, in Evanston, Illinois.