Penn State baseball (25-17, 12-12 Big Ten) was outpaced by No. 15 UCLA (32-11, 16-5 Big Ten) 6-3 on Sunday afternoon in Los Angeles.

After quickly taking the lead in the first inning, the Nittany Lions’ spotty offense couldn’t keep pace with the Bruins, putting a stamp on the series sweep for UCLA.

How It Happened

To start the ballgame, Paxton Kling reached first after being hit by a pitch. Jack Porter cranked a single up the middle, putting runners on first and third. With two outs on the board, Jesse Jaconski pushed a single through the left side to score Kling, giving Penn State an early 1-0 lead.

At the bottom of the first, UCLA put its first two batters on base after Dean West singled to right center and Roch Cholowsky got plunked. Mulivai Levu doubled to right center, scoring West and Cholowsky. An RBI single from Roman Martin scored Levu to add to the 3-1 lead. Logan Olson forced a ground ball to shortstop, which Penn State converted into a much-needed double play to stop the bleeding.

Both squads went three up, three down at the plate in the second inning.

Kling drew a full-count walk and stole second base. Bryce Molinaro joined him on base with a walk, but both runners were stranded on the base path.

UCLA ended its third trip to the plate similarly, with West taking his base after being plunked and Martin drawing a full-count, but neither Bruin made it around the diamond.

Joe Jaconski knotted it up 3-3 after a leadoff solo home run to start the fifth inning.

After three straight scoreless innings, Phoenix Call kick-started the Bruin offense with a leadoff single. West reached base for the third time on the afternoon, with a double that moved Call to third base. With two runners in scoring position, Cholowsky singled to third base, scoring Call to extend the 4-2 lead.

Jesse Jaconski sent a double down the left field line, chasing pitcher Landon Stump out of the game at the top of the sixth. Chris Grothues began his relief efforts against Joe Jaconski, who grounded out to second but moved his brother, Jesse, to third base. A wild pitch from Grothues allowed Jesse Jaconski to score, cutting UCLA’s lead to 4-3.

The Bruins went three up, three down again at the bottom of the sixth, sending Penn State back to the plate, but the Nittany Lions couldn’t generate a lick of offense either.

West drew another leadoff walk and proceeded to steal second base. Shortly after, Cholowsky delivered a gut punch to the Nittany Lions with a home run to left center field to make it a 6-3 ballgame. Scrambling for defensive answers, Penn State put Chase Renner, its fourth pitcher of the game, into action. Renner was able to sit down the next three runners he faced to get out of the inning, but the damage was already done.

Once again, Penn State’s offense failed to reach base at the bottom of the eighth.

Payton Brennan smacked a leadoff single to the left side of the infield, but Renner sat down the next three, striking out two of them to regain control of the inning.

With one last trip to the plate left, Jesse Jaconski continued his dominant game by cranking a leadoff double down the left field line. Joe Jaconski grounded out to second, but advanced Jesse to third in the process. Nate Voss got plunked to put runners on the corners with one out.

Just as Penn State built momentum for a potential rally, Matt Maloney grounded into a double play to end the ballgame 6-3.

Takeaways

• The Nittany Lions went three up, three down five times in Sunday’s series finale. The offense was few and far between.
• Offensively speaking, the Jaconski brothers did the majority of the heavy lifting today. Joe finished with a homerun while Jesse had three hits, two of which went for doubles, and an RBI. The only other player to register a hit was Jack Porter.
• The biggest deciding factor was UCLA’s ability to execute with runners in scoring position. The Bruins were 4-10, while the Nittany Lions were 1-8.

What’s Next

The Nittany Lions return home to Medlar Field at Lubrano Park to take on Rider for their annual Country night at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 30.