Penn State baseball (8-17, 3-5 Big Ten) was crushed by Illinois (13-12, 5-6 Big Ten) on Saturday afternoon at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park, 16-5. The game ended early after seven innings due to a run rule.

The offense tallied 13 hits in a generally good day, but the pitching staff never had it from the first pitch, and the Illinois offense, hungry to avenge Friday night’s loss, feasted en route to a blowout victory.

How It Happened

Ben Hudson got the start for the Nittany Lions, his seventh of the season. He struggled to find the zone right out of the gate with a pair of walks and paid the price, giving up RBI singles to AJ Putty and Kyle Schupmann before a two-out, two-run double by Will Johannes made it 4-0 Illinois before Penn State even got to bat.

Regan Hall got the start for the Fighting Illini and gave up a one-out single to Michael Anderson, but Jack Porter immediately grounded into a 6-4-3 double play.

Hudson got into more trouble to start the second with a walk and a single to put two quick runners on. After a double steal on a strikeout put two in scoring position, Jack Zebic skied a sacrifice fly to center field to make it 5-0, but Hudson stranded the other runner with his second strikeout.

Needing to pick itself up off the mat, Penn State’s offense punched back in the bottom of the second. Spencer Barnett and Bryce Molinaro opened the inning with singles and got to second and third with some shrewd baserunning. Avery Smith continued his hot hitting with an RBI single to get the Nittany Lions on the board.

Smith shoots a grounder through the left side to bring in Barnett!

B2 | PSU 1, ILL 5#WeAre pic.twitter.com/pv74NVyfKD

— Penn State Baseball (@PennStateBASE) March 28, 2026

Smith was picked off at first to get the first out, but Maddox McDonald was still able to drive in Molinaro with a cue-shot RBI infield single to cut the deficit to three after two innings.

Illinois got one back in the third on some aggressive baserunning by Collin Jennings. A leadoff double, tag to get to third on a flyout, and a scamper home on a wild pitch made it 6-2. The ball didn’t get too far away from Smith, but Jennings’ aggressiveness forced him into rushing, and he mishandled the ball trying to cover the plate.

Anderson and Porter singled with one out in the third to put pressure on Hall, and it appeared that Molinaro was about to deliver an RBI single up the middle, but his 105 mph liner hit the pitcher on a comebacker, and Hall threw him out to end the inning.

Frankie Sanchez replaced Hudson after three challenging innings and got two of the first three out, but couldn’t find the strike zone after that. A hit batter and a walk loaded the bases, and Jennings got it to a full count before annihilating a ball to dead center for a grand slam. It didn’t stop there, as Schupmann smashed the next pitch for another long home run to make it 11-2 Illinois.

Hall allowed two more baserunners in the bottom half on a Jesse Jaconski single and an E6, but struck out the other three batters he faced. Ethan Bauerschmidt, who started Wednesday’s loss to Bucknell, took the ball in the fifth and finally put up a zero for Penn State, sitting down Illinois 1-2-3.

After lining single after single off of Hall in the first four innings, a big blow finally came off the bat of Molinaro with two out in the fifth, as he scored Anderson and Porter with a three-run home run to right field, his seventh homer of the season, to cut the deficit to 11-5.

Bryce Molinaro!!! He goes oppo for his 7th homer of the year, a three-run blast!

B5 | PSU 5, ILL 11#WeAre pic.twitter.com/6iyfIcnUha

— Penn State Baseball (@PennStateBASE) March 28, 2026

Bauerschmidt came back out for the sixth and also lost the zone. After a single and a pair of walks, Schupmann drilled a ground-rule double to left-center to make it 13-5. Skip Shenosky was tasked with putting out the fire, and he immediately allowed a two-run double to Johannes to put the game in run-rule territory. Brayden Mazzacano joined the party with an RBI single before the inning finally ended at 16-5.

Olivier Martel took over for Illinois in the sixth and allowed a pair of hits to Preston Yaucher and Anderson, along with a walk to Porter, but a double play and a pop-up got him out of the inning.

Harrison Lollin pitched the seventh and got through it 1-2-3. Martel looked to close things out after the seventh-inning stretch, and he did so, working around a two-out walk to Joey DeMucci to secure the run-rule victory.

Takeaways

• Walks continue to be a problem for the Penn State pitching staff. They entered play third in the Big Ten, averaging 5.6 walks per nine innings, after Friday’s comeback victory, and walked another seven batters today. They’re dead last in the conference in strikeout-to-walk ratio. Ben Hudson has typically not had command issues in his first two months as a Nittany Lion, but he was all over the place today.
• It’s hard to consistently win when you’re always playing from behind, which is what Penn State has all season. Through 25 games, they’ve scored first just nine times.
• Penn State will be happy to get Collin Jennings out of Happy Valley after Sunday’s game. In two games, the junior is 5-for-7 with two home runs, a double, eight RBI, and two stolen bases.
• Even though the pitching never allowed this game to be competitive, the offense did very well against a tough lefty with a 2.95 ERA entering play. They tallied 11 hits in five innings with a lot of hard contact. With the inconsistent play of late, the offense’s success against a strong pitching staff is one positive going into Sunday.
• Penn State has a double-play problem. They’ve now grounded into 26 of them in 25 games and Jayden Davis, who’s still hitting .312 on the year, leads the nation with nine.
• Bryce Molinaro is scorching hot. He’s 10-for-17 with three home runs, five extra base hits, four walks, and eight RBIs in his last five games and is now hitting .304. His 31st career home run in the fifth moved him into sole possession of fifth in Penn State history, and he’s only three away from second.

What’s Next?

Penn State looks to win its first Big Ten series of the year in the rubber game of this three-game set against Illinois at 11 a.m. on Sunday, March 29. The game will be broadcast on Big Ten Plus.