Penn State Baseball Powers Past St. Bonaventure 8-6 On Dollar Dog Night
Penn State baseball (7-15, 2-4 Big Ten) picked up a win on Dollar Dog Night against St. Bonaventure (5-17, 1-5 Big Ten) by a score of 8-6 on Tuesday evening.
The Nittany Lions jumped out to a 2-0 lead from a pair of two-out singles in the early innings from Bryce Molinaro and Preston Yaucher. However, the Bonnies launched a comeback on Frankie Sanchez in the fourth, who worked through three effortless innings until that point.
The Penn State bats stayed within striking distance for the middle innings of the game, and it wasn’t until the seventh inning that they recaptured the lead from Molinaro’s two-run shot.
How It Happened
After firing a first-pitch fastball for a strike, Sanchez made easy work of the Bonnies’ top of the order. He retired the first two with pop-outs to right field and the third with a groundout to Jayden Davis.
It appeared St. Bonaventure’s pitcher, Tristan Ciampa, was going to make quicker work of Penn State’s lineup after striking out the first two Nittany Lions, but a two-out walk from Jack Porter kept Ciampa on the mound. Following Porter’s suit, Spencer Barnett drew a free pass, and Molinaro got Penn State on the board with a punched line drive single into right field.
With runners on the corners, Molinaro took off for second, and St. Bonaventure’s second baseman crashed the throw to cut down Barnett at the plate.
Sanchez needed only seven pitches in the second to put the Bonnies down in order again, producing three more balls in play for outs.
On the other side of the ball, Penn State bats continued to tag Ciampa with two outs. Davis led off with a double over the head of the Bonnies’ left fielder, but the next two Nittany Lions struck out swinging. With two down, Preston Yaucher jumped on the first pitch and poked a single into right that scored Davis.
Yaucher ended the inning getting caught delayed-stealing.
The Bonnies got their first knock of the day with a 2-2 single up the middle by Alex Hebenstreit, but Sanchez shut down any offense. The Penn State right-hander put down the next two hitters by way of the K, and the next on a fielder’s choice groundout.
With a score of 2-0, Ciampa’s day ended in the dugout, and St. Bonaventure brought on a fresh arm with Jack Kelly, who put Penn State down in order.
Sanchez, coming into the inning with only 33 pitches, endured his longest inning yet in the third. After collecting his third strikeout, Anthony Fernandez cranked a double dead-center. Two batters later, with two outs, the Penn State pitcher challenged Antonio Cordeiro with a fastball in a full-count, and the Bonnies’ catcher launched it over the left field wall to tie the game.
Their bats continued to heat up after the game-tying home run, as they slashed three consecutive doubles to all parts of the outfield. Two more runs scored from the doubles before Mike Gambino took a trip to the mound and sent Sanchez to the dugout.
Still with two outs and a runner in scoring position, Mason Horwat came in to silence the Bonnies’ bats. Horwat allowed a single through the right side that narrowly scored the fifth St. Bonaventure run of the inning, before striking out the ninth hitter of the inning.
Two-out hitting made its way to the bottom half of the fourth for the Penn State bats. Molinaro worked a one-out walk, and Smith hit a home run two batters later to cut the deficit to one run.
Horwat went back to the mound to extend his relief appearance and recorded two strikeouts on his way to retiring St. Bonaventure in order.
For their defensive half of the fifth, the Bonnies brought in their third reliever, Eamon Giblin. Penn State almost launched another two-out attack with a pieced single from Porter, but Giblin got Barnett to roll over.
With the help of an exceptional bare-hand play by Bryce Molinaro, Horwat pitched his way to another 1-2-3 inning against the Bonnies in the sixth. Penn State still trails 5-4.
From one side of the ball to the other, Molinaro got Penn State’s bats going with a lead-off single. Following a Davis flyout, two more Nittany Lions reached base, loading them up for Yaucher with only one out. Yaucher swung at the third first pitch he’s seen tonight, and chopped it to shortstop for a 6-4-3 double play, eliminating Penn State’s threat.
Matthew VanOstenbridge took the relieving duties off Horwat’s hands in the seventh and retired the first two Bonnies he faced. But trouble ensued when Chris Hoalcraft reached on an errant low throw by Davis, and Conner Vercollone worked a walk. Fernandez turned on his second double of the game, scoring Hoalcraft and forcing Gambino to replace VanOstenbridge.
Robert Brown III got his first batter faced to pop out into shallow right field.
Penn State’s top of the order was due up in the seventh, and Cohl Mercado led off with a drag bunt that St. Bonaventure’s second baseman made a throwing error on, advancing Mercado to second. The hottest hitter in the lineup, Michael Anderson, finally made a mark on the game with an RBI single laced into center.
The Bonnies made a pitching change, bringing in Ryan Kucy, a sidearm right-handed pitcher. Kucy’s funky release-point did not affect Molinaro, however, who launched a two-run home run 426 feet into the State College night, giving Penn State a 7-6 lead.
Brown III worked another scoreless inning in the eighth, this time needing four outs after a strike three got away from Smith.
The Nittany Lions added an insurance run in the eighth with the help of some basepath speed from McDonald. The left fielder chopped one up to the second baseman and beat out his throw as the fielder was moving up the middle. McDonald stole second base and advanced to third on a shallow fly ball off the bat of Yaucher. Mercado knocked him in with a line drive single to right.
Smith III returned to the mound to close out a win for Penn State, and he succeeded. The reliever got a first-pitch pop-out, struck out Hoalcraft, and secured a fly-out to earn the save in an 8-66 ballgame.
Takeaways
- Penn State scored five of its eight runs with two outs, including two RBI singles in the first two innings — a positive sign for Penn State hitters who have struggled with two outs. However, two-out hitting was also prominent for the Bonnies. They scored six of their seven runs with two outs, and five of them came in one inning.
- In the first two innings, Penn State made two outs on the basepaths that concluded an inning in which they had already scored. Coach Gambino’s previous teams had formed identities around basepath aggressiveness, but this year’s team has a success rate of 73.9%, a 14% drop from last year.
- Bryce Molinaro launched the 30th home run of his Penn State career 424 feet into center field with a recorded exit velocity of 109 MPH. The Penn State infielder moved up to 5th all-time in home runs in program history. Molinaro has recorded consecutive three-hit games.
What’s Next?
Penn State baseball continues its home stretch against Bucknell at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 25. The game will be streamed on BTN+.
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