No. 9 seed Penn State baseball (33-22, 15-15) kept their Cinderella slippers on for another day, upsetting No. 4 seed USC (34-21, 18-12 Big Ten) to win Pool D in the Big Ten Tournament, 2-1.

With their season on the line, the Nittany Lions’ pitching was superb, holding a Trojan offense that entered play hitting .295 on the season to just one run and a ghastly 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position. With the win, Penn State’s season will continue to play the winner of Pool A on Saturday.

Dimond Loosli pitched 2.1 outstanding innings of relief and got the win. Nate Voss’ ninth-inning homer was the game-winning hit.

How It Happened

USC sent Caden Aoki out for this win-and-advance contest. Aoki tossed seven innings of two-run ball against the Nittany Lions on April 12, so Penn State needed to get on him early.

With one out in the first, Paxton Kling understood the mission. A walk and his 15th stolen base of the season put a runner in scoring position for Bryce Molinaro, who ripped a 3-2 pitch to right field for an RBI single, giving Penn State a 1-0 lead in the first inning for the second day in a row. Molinaro’s RBI was his 61st of the season, the second-most in program history for a single season.

Junior left-hander Logan Olson made his 11th start of the season and got things going with a strikeout to start, but walked Ethan Hedges. A slow groundout to second and a long flyout to Kling in center field was able to produce the shutdown inning.

Penn State made Aoki work in the second, as Nate Voss drew a walk and Derek Cease singled, but a trio of strikeouts ended the threat.

Olson came back out and appeared to be in good shape through 1.2 innings, but a walk and a hit batter loaded the bases for USC’s leadoff hitter Brayden Dowd, who ripped a hard ground ball that was knocked down by Cease and scored a run on an infield single. After a mound visit, Olson induced a first-pitch groundout to strand the bases loaded, albeit with USC tying the game at one after two innings.

Kling led off the third with a base hit to right field. A forceout, Ryan Weingartner’s single, and a wild pitch put two in scoring position for Matt Maloney with two out. With Aoki approaching 70 pitches in the third inning, Maloney was inches from a two-run double that was ruled foul before grounding out to first base, once again ending the threat.

A leadoff single in the third gave Olson early trouble that nearly spiraled when Adrian Lopez doubled down the left field line. In an incredible relay, Jesse Jaconski and Weingartner combined to cut down the runner trying to score from first on a bang-bang play that stood after a Trojans challenge. Olson’s day was over after the lengthy review, giving way to Ben DeMell with one out. DeMell walked a batter but induced a flyout and pop-up to end the inning.

"Penn State cuts him down at home!" @PennStateBASE nails the left-to-home relay to keep a run off the board #B1GBaseball on @BigTenNetwork pic.twitter.com/qC7TETAjGw

— Big Ten Baseball (@B1Gbaseball) May 22, 2025

The fourth inning was the quietest of the contest so far, as Aoki had a 1-2-3 inning and DeMell worked around an excuse-me double down the left-field line for a scoreless inning.

Kling reached base for the third time today with a one-out single in the fifth, but was gunned down trying to steal his second bag of the day shortly after, as the Nittany Lions went down quietly once again.

DeMell got the first two outs of the bottom half of the fifth, but was pulled after a two-out walk for Matt Morash, who induced a first-pitch flyout. Aoki came back out for the sixth, striking out Jesse Jaconski, retiring Weingartner on a deep fly ball to the edge of the warning track in right-center field, and inducing a groundout by Maloney. After grinding through three innings and barely escaping them all, Aoki had dominated the last three innings.

Morash came back out for the bottom of the sixth and issued a one-out walk before a pinch-hit double by Kade Higgins to put two in scoring position with one out and the top of the order coming up. After an infield pop-fly for the second out, Mike Gambino issued an intentional walk to load the bases before going to Dimond Loosli out of the bullpen. Loosli’s first pitch was skied into center field for an inning-ending flyout, stranding another USC threat.

It was clear that the Trojans were going to ride their starter as long as possible. Voss singled to lead off the inning and got to scoring position on a sacrifice bunt. Cohl Mercado struck out and Joe Jaconski grounded out to strand the runner, cementing seven stellar innings for Aoki on a career-high 116 pitches.

Loosli stayed on the mound and delivered the best inning of the day for Nittany Lions pitching, getting a strikeout and a pair of groundouts, including a nice diving play by Molinaro at third. Through seven innings, the game was still tied 1-1.

USC finally went to the bullpen in the eighth, handing the ball to Andrew Johnson. Kling led off with his third hit of the game, an infield single on a slow chopper to shortstop. A Molinaro strikeout and Jesse Jaconski double play quickly ended the threat, as the Nittany Lions’ offense continued to sputter.

A one-out single and a throwing error by Voss on a stolen base attempt put the go-ahead run on third for USC with two outs in the bottom of the eighth, but the remarkable outing by Loosli continued with a strikeout of Dowd to end the inning and strand another USC runner.

In the ninth, Weingartner grounded out and Maloney flew out. However, just when it looked like the sputtering offense was going to go away quietly again, Voss destroyed a 0-1 pitch to deep left field for his eighth home run of the season. The 79th home run of the season for Penn State gave them a 2-1 lead. Cease singled and Mercado flew out to end the inning, but the Nittany Lions were three outs from an upset victory.

NATE VOSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He hammers this one over the wall in left!

T9 | PSU 2, USC 1#WeAre pic.twitter.com/h2WVk6jNzs

— Penn State Baseball (@PennStateBASE) May 22, 2025

Chase Renner came on for the save. The fireballer went right after the heart of the USC order, inducing a flyout and striking out Bryce Grudzielanek on a 96-mph fastball. With two out, Adrian Lopez popped up to Kling in center field to end the game and send Penn State to the Big Ten Tournament semifinal for the second consecutive season.

Renner got his fourth save of the season, the most on the team. Loosli got his fifth win in relief.

Takeaways

• Mike Gambino’s first two seasons have been a big success at Penn State. Since joining the Big Ten in 1992, Penn State has never made the conference tournament semifinal (or the equivalent) in back-to-back seasons, but Gambino did it in his first two. Their 33rd win today broke a multi-team tie for the second-most wins in a season in program history. The Nittany Lions won 41 games in 2000. The program is officially being put on the map.
• On a day when ace Ryan DeSanto watched in the dugout after his great performance on Wednesday, the pitching staff turned in one of their best performances of the season, holding a strong USC offense to one run with most of their best pitchers sidelined due to their usage against Washington.
• Paxton Kling continues to be outstanding. After going 3-for-3 with a walk and stolen base, he’s hitting a clean .350 on the season. Spectacular for the blue and white in the two-hole in the lineup.

What’s Next

Penn State baseball will continue its Big Ten Tournament run on Saturday, May 24, at 3 p.m. at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha. They will either play No. 8 seed Nebraska or No. 1 seed Oregon, who face off for a spot in the semifinal on Friday, May 23, at 7 p.m.