Penn State Baseball Holds Off Iowa 11-6 In Big Ten Opener
Penn State baseball (5-11, 1-0 Big Ten) opened Big Ten play with a Friday afternoon win at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park over Iowa (11-6, 0-1 Big Ten), 11-6, snapping a five-game losing streak.
Penn State burst out to a 9-0 lead and was coasting behind a phenomenal start from Colin Fitzgerald, but the Hawkeyes made the Nittany Lions sweat late, scoring six runs in the final two innings before Ben DeMell eventually shut the door.
How It Happened
Fitzgerald took the bump for the Nittany Lions, making his fifth start of the season. After a pair of rough starts in a row, he got off to a good start in the first with a 1-2-3 inning.
Jaron Bleeker got the start for the Hawkeyes and walked Cohl Mercado on four pitches to open his outing before Michael Anderson jumped on the first pitch he saw and roped a ball down the left-field line for a two-run home run to open the scoring. It was Anderson’s eighth homer of the season, making it 2-0 Penn State.
Jayden Davis drew a walk, and Bryce Molinaro was hit in the shoulder by a 1-2 pitch to immediately keep the pressure on the Hawkeyes. The Nittany Lions then used some small ball to generate a third run, as Jack Porter’s flyout got Davis to third and Avery Smith utilized a safety squeeze to score him on a sacrifice bunt.
In the end, most of this team’s damage is done with their big-time power. Jesse Jaconski shook off his early-season cobwebs with a long drive to left field for his second home run of the season, a 428-foot blast that made it 5-0 Penn State. Maddox McDonald ensured the Nittany Lions would bat around with a walk and a stolen base right after, but he was stranded at third to finally end the inning.
Fitzgerald looked for a shutdown inning when he got back on the mound in the second and flirted with trouble, walking a pair and throwing a pair of wild pitches, but he was able to strand both runners.
Bleeker tried to settle in for the Hawkeyes, but he gave up another run in the second after plunking Anderson to set up Molinaro for an RBI single to make it 6-0 after two.
Iowa got another baserunner in the third on a walk by Miles Risley, but Fitzgerald kept them without a hit through his first three innings. Bleeker finally put up a zero for the Hawkeyes, pitching around a McDonald single in the third.
Kooper Schulte broke up Fitzgerald’s no-hitter with two outs in the fourth, but the Maine transfer stranded a runner for a third consecutive inning by blowing a fastball past Joey Nerat for his fifth strikeout to end the inning.
Iowa tried to squeeze as much as they could out of Bleeker after his rough start, but eventually pulled the plug after he walked Mercado and Davis. Ganon Archer took over with two on and one out and was able to put out the fire against Molinaro and Porter.
Fitzgerald continued to dominate the Hawkeye lineup, sitting them down 1-2-3 in the fifth with another strikeout. The Nittany Lions broke through on Archer in the bottom half, getting a trio of singles from Smith, McDonald, and an RBI knock from Yaucher to make it 7-0.
After a mound visit, Penn State generated another run on pure hustle. On a designed hit-and-run, McDonald and Yaucher both took off from first and second on the pitch. Mercado chopped a grounder to shortstop, and McDonald never stopped running, rounding third and scoring as Schulte took his time and bounced the throw, allowing Mercado to reach on a run-scoring E6 to make it 8-0 and force another pitching change.
Cole Moore came on in relief for Iowa and couldn’t stop the bleeding, allowing an RBI single to Anderson and walking Davis to load the bases. The blow to put the game in run-rule territory wouldn’t come in the fifth, however, as a heads-up play from Caleb Wulf got a forceout at home plate before Porter popped out to end the inning, but the Nittany Lions still expanded their lead to 9-0 after five.
With his pitch count approaching triple digits, Fitzgerald came back out for the sixth and pitched around a leadoff infield single to get through the sixth. Brolan Frost pitched the sixth for Iowa and gave the Hawkeyes their first 1-2-3 inning of the day.
Fitzgerald came back out for the seventh on 97 pitches and worked efficiently to get through the inning on seven pitches. Frost again worked quickly for the Hawkeyes, only giving up a long flyout to Anderson in a 1-2-3 frame.
Mike Gambino tried to steal some outs with his ace at the end of his rope in the eighth, and it backfired, as Kyle Alivo and Gable Mitchell led off the inning with singles before a walk to Brett White loaded the bases with nobody out, finally forcing the Penn State skipper’s hands, pulling Fitzgerald at 111 pitches for Ben DeMell.
DeMell wouldn’t hold the shutout for long, sending one to the backstop for a run-scoring wild pitch on just his second pitch. Caleb Wulf and the pinch-hitting Bryce Phelps both lined RBI singles to cut it to 9-3, still with nobody out. After the first five Hawkeyes reached to start the eighth, DeMell was able to retire the next three to escape trouble with help from sliding plays from Davis and Porter on the right side of the infield.
Frost stayed in for the Hawkeyes, but didn’t fare as well as he did in the prior two innings. Molinaro singled with one out and scored on an RBI double by Porter that was aided by being lodged in the outfield wall. Smith dropped a beautiful bunt single to put runners on the corners and force a pitching change.
Ty Mikkelsen took the mound as Iowa’s last hope to not get run-ruled, and he mostly succeeded. After Jaconski reached on a run-scoring fielder’s choice, Mikkelsen struck out McDonald and got Yaucher to flyout to send this game to the ninth.
DeMell stayed on for the ninth and struggled after getting the first out. A walk, a hit-by-pitch, and a two-run double by White cut the deficit to 11-5. Back-to-back singles after that generated another run and cut the deficit to five. Wulf and Phelps singled to make it 11-6, but just as the game started to feel in doubt, Davis made a jumping catch to grab a line drive at second base, and Schulte popped out to end the game.
Takeaways
- Colin Fitzgerald was coming off a pair of rough starts against Texas Tech and Indiana State, which inflated his season ERA to 6.75. Today was a big step forward for him, especially when considering that the potent Iowa offense was averaging over nine runs per game and hitting .344 as a team entering play, top-ten in the nation. Both he and Coach Gambino probably wish his outing ended after the seventh.
- Speaking of that Iowa offense, they mustered just two singles and three walks through seven innings. In the final two innings, they had seven hits, two walks, and a hit batter, generating all six runs.
- Michael Anderson is now up to eight home runs and 23 RBI in 15 games. He’s having a similar start to 2026 as fellow SEC transfer Paxton Kling had to 2025, but against a harder schedule. Just for some bookkeeping, the program record for home runs is 19, set by Ben Heath in 2010. That seems attainable for a guy with the easy power that Anderson has. As for RBIs, the program record of 80 might be out of reach, but Bryce Molinaro’s mark of 61 from last season is in range if he continues to rake.
- Penn State’s offense has been pretty inconsistent to start the year, but it was clicking on all cylinders Friday against one of Iowa’s better pitchers. They slugged, they got timely hits, they used their wheels, and they were patient, a good formula for winning in the Big Ten.
- Penn State now has a direct transitive win over the reigning national champions, LSU. Iowa beat Northeastern 21-13 in February, but the Huskies turned around and shocked LSU in Baton Rouge two weeks later. Hang the banner.
Up Next
The Nittany Lions continue the three-game weekend set at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park against Iowa at 2 p.m. on Saturday, March 14. The game will be broadcast on Big Ten Plus.
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