Penn State baseball (8-18, 3-6 Big Ten) dropped both games on Saturday to No. 19 Nebraska (23-6, 8-1 Big Ten) at Hawks Field at Haymarket Park, by scores of 8-7 and 13-1.

The Nittany Lions jumped out to a lead early in game one with a pair of home runs from Bryce Molinaro and Justin Turcovski. But Colin Fitzgerald couldn’t make it out of the third inning, and three of Penn State’s best relievers couldn’t hold down Nebraska’s offense.

Game two wasn’t any prettier. The Nittany Lions fell behind five runs in the first inning and never seemed to have a chance in the game. Hudson made it through three innings before he was pulled for front-end of the bullpen relievers. The bats managed only four hits in the second match of the series.

Game One

Both starters faced the minimum in the first inning of game one. Cohl Mercado led off with a walk, but Cornhuskers’ Ty Horn doubled him up on a Bryce Molinaro groundball, and Fitzgerald needed only nine pitches to retire Nebraska in order.

Penn State had the luck of the baseball gods in the top of the second. With one out, Jack Porter skied a ball to right field that should have been caught, but somehow found grass and allowed Porter to pull into second safely. He advanced to third on a flyout and scored on a wild pitch with a crazy swim move slide.

Wild pitch! Porter swims around the tag!

B2 | PSU 1, No. 19 NEB 0#WeAre pic.twitter.com/AEgSaYu49w

— Penn State Baseball (@PennStateBASE) April 4, 2026

Nebraska’s Jett Buck knotted the game up in the bottom half with a solo home run, but Fitzgerald collected two strikeouts swinging to keep the damage to one run.

The bats came alive for Penn State in the third. Preston Yaucher led off with a single into right field, and Mercado got plunked in a two-strike count to bring Anderson up with two on. The designated hitter pulled a two-RBI double past the third baseman, giving Penn State a 3-1 lead.

Molinaro followed his double up with a two-run blast for his eighth home run of the year, padding the lead for Fitzgerald.

Moli mashing!!! Molinaro crushes his 8th homer of the year!

T3 | PSU 5, No. 19 NEB 1#WeAre pic.twitter.com/80bkdnyDOV

— Penn State Baseball (@PennStateBASE) April 4, 2026

But the Penn State starter let Nebraska crawl back, giving up a two-run home run to their leadoff hitter, Mac Moyer. He got the second out of the inning with a strikeout, but the next three batters reached base, two of them via base on balls, and Coach Mike Gambino pulled him.

Gambino went to one of his most trusted arms, Kyle Emmons. Emmons entered with bases loaded and produced a pop-out, which Yaucher had to dive for due to the wind, to end the inning. Penn State still leads 5-3.

Justin Turcovski reclaimed the four-run lead for the Nittany Lions as he followed up Avery Smith’s double with a wall-scraping home run.

Justin Turcovski!!! He gets this one over the wall in center for a two-run homer! His first as a Nittany Lion!

T4 | PSU 7, No. 19 NEB 3#WeAre pic.twitter.com/9M18FoxwMS

— Penn State Baseball (@PennStateBASE) April 4, 2026

Emmons limited the Cornhuskers to a single run in the fourth, but it was another bite into Penn State’s lead, cutting it to 7-4.

Nebraska’s reliever, Tucker Timmerman, threw a clean fifth inning, with two groundouts and a backwards K. Emmons’ inning was dirtier. He allowed a walk and two singles, which cut Penn State’s lead down to two runs, but struck out two and escaped another two-out jam.

Timmerman pitched to another scoreless inning, only allowing Smith to reach via a walk. Dimond Loosli took over pitching duties for Emmons with a two-run lead. Loosli let the first three batters reach base, and two of them scored from a wild pitch and the following throwing error by Smith.

All tied up now, Penn State needed its bats to come back to life. Anderson ripped his second double of the day into left field, but Molinaro and Spencer Barnett couldn’t bring him across.

Robert Brown III relieved Loosli in the seventh. He got two of the three batters he faced out, but a two-out single by Rhett Stokes gave Nebraska its first lead of the afternoon.

J’Shawn Unger replaced Timmerman and retired the Nittany Lions in order at the top of the eighth. Nebraska still leads 8-7.

Brown III got himself into some trouble in the eighth. He hit the first batter, gave up a single to the next, and got a fly out that advanced both of them. Ben DeMell came in for Brown III and intentionally walked Buck to load the bases.

DeMell bared down and struck out Will Jesske, then got an inning-ending ground ball to keep the deficit to one.

In their last chance to keep the game alive, Penn State went down in order, though Turcovski missed a game-tying home run by five feet.

Game Two

Nebraska jumped on Penn State early. Their starting pitcher, Carson Jasa, collected two strikeouts in the first, and their offense jumped on Penn State starter Ben Hudson.

Moyer singled, Jesske got plunked, and Case Sanderson walked to load the bases with no outs. Dylan Carey punched an RBI single to left field, and Buck brought everyone across with a grand slam to take a 5-0 lead in the first.

Hudson put the next three Cornhuskers down.

Jasa faced four again in the second, allowing a single to Porter, but never let him advance to second base.

Hudson gave up three consecutive singles to start the second, scoring another run. He walked Sanderson again, and Moyer scored on the fourth pitch as it got by Joey DeMucci. Nebraska led 7-0 at the end of the frame.

But Penn State finally showed some fight. Yaucher led the inning with a single to flip the lineup, and Anderson followed suit two batters later, putting runners on the corners. Barnett laced a double to right field to score one and advance Anderson to third, but Porter struck out to end the inning.

Hudson held the Cornhuskers to their lowest scoring inning in game two, restricting them to just a run from an RBI double in the bottom half.

Jasa tossed another scoreless frame in the fourth, striking out Maddox McDonald and DeMucci swinging, and getting Jayden Davis to ground out.

Freshman Ethan Bauerschmidt replaced Hudson and struggled just like him. The freshman allowed a leadoff double, walked Sanderson — for the third time — and allowed a two-RBI single to Buck. Bauerschmidt was pulled for Frankie Sanchez who got the second out of the inning just before allowing an RBI double to give Nebraska an 11-1 lead.

The Nittany Lions went down in order, again, in the fifth, and Jasa collected his ninth strikeout.

Sanchez limited the damage in the fifth, allowing two runs, despite the lead-off batter reaching on an error. Nebraska extended its lead to 13-1.

Jasa reached double-digit strikeouts in the sixth with two strikeouts, one looking and on swinging. The third out he produced was a groundout off the bat of Porter.

Harrison Lollin tossed the first clean inning for Penn State in the sixth, collecting two strikeouts along the way against Nebraska’s pinch hitters.

In Penn State’s final chance

Takeaways

• Michael Anderson was all over Horn in his first at-bat of game one, barreling two balls foul down the left field line. He finally snuck one inside the chalk in his second at-bat with two runners on, and put Penn State back in front. Anderson extended his hit-streak to five games on Saturday with a single in the second game.
• Bryce Molinaro’s eighth home run of the season marked the 32nd of his career at Penn State, moving him up to fourth all-time in Penn State history.
• Gambino went all-in in game one, utilizing three of his best relievers after Fitzgerald couldn’t make it out of the third inning. However, Emmons, Loosli, and Brown III got themselves into dirty innings and allowed the Cornhuskers to crawl back through the final six innings.
• Good teams score. Great teams score and shut down their defensive half of the inning. Penn State was unable to do that in game one, as they continued to let Nebraska cut into their lead.

What’s Next?

Penn State looks to sneak a win out of Nebraska Sunday, March 29, with first game set at 2 p.m. The game will be broadcast on Big Ten Plus.