Penn State Baseball Swept In Saturday Doubleheader Against Minnesota
Penn State baseball (12-31, 5-18 Big Ten) was swept in a doubleheader at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park by Minnesota (29-17, 10-13 Big Ten) on Saturday afternoon.
Michael Anderson tied the single-season program record with his 19th home run of the season early in Game Two, and the Nittany Lions stayed within striking distance throughout both games, but they weren’t able to pull out either game as their slim hopes of the postseason dwindled even further.
How It Happened
Game One
Colin Fitzgerald got the start for the Nittany Lions, his 11th of the season, and immediately got hit around. A leadoff four-pitch walk, single, and a three-run blast to dead center field by Weber Neels put the Golden Gophers up 3-0 before Fitzgerald even recorded an out.
It could’ve gotten a lot worse after Minnesota loaded the bases with a single, double, and a walk with nobody out, but Fitzgerald found the strike zone and struck out three consecutive hitters to escape further trouble.
Isaac Morton took the ball for the Golden Gophers for his 11th start of the year. He retired the first two batters he faced, plunked Bryce Molinaro, and ended the inning with a strikeout.
Fitzgerald walked a pair of batters in the second, but stranded them on the corners. Morton hit his second batter of the day with one out, and it came back to bite him, as Avery Smith scampered around the bases on an RBI triple to right field by Maddox McDonald, aided by a misplay by Charlie Sutherland, to cut the deficit to 3-1 after two.
A single through the shift and a hit-by-pitch put two on with one out against Fitzgerald in the third, but he wouldn’t escape this one cleanly. Jack Mosh ripped a ball down the first-base line that was knocked down by Kevin Karstetter, but Easton Richt was able to score from second after it trickled away to make it 4-1.
Another hit by pitch by Morton in the third set up the heart of the Penn State order with a runner on base, but they didn’t capitalize.
Mason Horwat took over for Penn State in the fourth. He retired the first two batters he faced, gave up back-to-back singles, and then stranded the runners by inducing an inning-ending pop fly. After a 1-2-3 inning by Morton in the bottom half, Horwat delivered the Nittany Lions’ first 1-2-3 frame of the day in the fifth.
Minnesota wasn’t giving Penn State any offensive breathing room in the first four innings, but the door creaked open on an E6 to allow Preston Yaucher to reach with one out. A walk and Michael Anderson’s blop single loaded the bases for Molinaro, who cashed in with a sacrifice fly to the warning track in right field to make it 4-2.
Mason Butash tossed the sixth for the Nittany Lions and worked around a pair of two-out singles to get out of the inning.
Adam Urban was first out of the pen for the Golden Gophers and got the first two outs, but a seeing-eye single by Jesse Jaconski and a bunt single by McDonald set up Yaucher, who shot an RBI single through the right side of the infield to make it 4-3.
Richt doubled to lead off the seventh, and some good fundamental baseball from Minnesota drove him in as the insurance run, as a sacrifice bunt and a Jack Bello sac fly made it 5-3 into the seventh-inning stretch.
That insurance run would immediately be useful, as Molinaro obliterated a 3-2 pitch to right-center field for a 444-foot home run, his 13th of the season, to once again make it a one-run game, 5-4, after seven.
Butash walked Davis Hamilt with one out in the eighth, and all hell ensued. Two attempted pickoffs came agonizingly close to catching him leaning, but the third time seemed to be the charm for Butash, catching him in a rundown. After a lengthy rundown, Hamilt reached his arm out to bump into Yaucher to draw a bush league interference call. One pitch later, Charlie Suth flew out to end the inning.
Joe Sperry pitched the eighth for Minnesota and tossed a 1-2-3 frame against the bottom of the order. Ben DeMell worked quickly and put up a zero in the top of the ninth.
Sperry stayed out there to face 9-1-2 to get a six-out save. Two quick outs set up a blockbuster matchup with Anderson, who hit an inside-out single that trickled past the first baseman to give Molinaro a chance. With the pinch-running Justin Turcovski at first as the tying run, Molinaro smoked a ball right at the right fielder to lose a heartbreaker in Game One, 5-4.
Game Two
Ben Hudson made his 12th start of the season for the Nittany Lions and got off to a better start than Fitzgerald, sitting down the top of Minnesota’s order, 1-2-3.
The Golden Gophers had Marcus Kruzan toe the slab to start the nightcap, and after a terrific play by Mosh at second base to start the inning, Anderson obliterated the first pitch he saw for a 430-foot home run off the scoreboard in left field. The senior’s 19th home run of the season gave Penn State a quick 1-0 lead.
Hudson stayed strong with another 1-2-3 inning in the second. A bullet single by Spencer Barnett led off the bottom half, but he was stranded.
After another 1-2-3 third for Hudson, the Nittany Lions strung together a third-inning rally with singles by Jayden Davis and Anderson, leading to a hard ground ball by Molinaro being booted by Jack Spanier to bring in a run. Penn State reloaded the bases with one out, and despite a long 11-pitch at-bat by Barnett, they stranded all three runners, settling for a 2-0 lead after three.
Hudson surrendered his first baserunner on a bloop single by Spanier in the fourth and then plunked Neels, but got a pair of strikeouts to strand his first traffic of the day. After really laboring in the first three innings, Kruzan had a clean fourth.
Minnesota got on the board in the fifth. A leadoff double by Richt and a walk to Brayden Hellum put immediate traffic on base that paid off with a Bello RBI single. A 6-6-3 double play seemed to calm things down, but a walk, a hit-by-pitch, and puzzling outfield miscommunication led to a bases-clearing double by Neels to make it 4-2 Minnesota and chase Hudson from the game for Kyle Emmons, who finished off the inning.
Tyler Hemmesch took over for the Golden Gophers in the fifth and put up a shutdown inning despite a pair of warning track flyouts. Emmons got the first two outs of the sixth, allowed a double to Hellum, and struck out Bello to keep the deficit at two.
Barnett roped a one-out double off Hemmesch to get the tying run to the plate, but the next two hitters struck out to strand him. Emmons once again worked a spotless seventh.
Joey DeMucci led off the bottom of the seventh against the new pitcher, Will Whelan, and was hit in the knee by a pitch while squaring to bunt. Despite clearly laboring, he scampered to second on a wild pitch and got to third on an E2, allowing him to score on an ensuing wild pitch to cut the deficit to 4-3.
Emmons began to unravel in the eighth as he reached the end of his rope. Neels walked, got to second on a passed ball, and scored on an RBI single by Charlie Sutherland. The junior wriggled out of further trouble, but Minnesota went back up, 5-3.
Whelan stayed on for the eighth for the Golden Gophers and worked into some deep counts, falling behind Molinaro 3-0 before striking him out and allowing a hard single to Karstetter at the end of a long at-bat. Still, he settled down to get through the inning. Dimond Loosli pitched the ninth for Penn State, allowing a two-out single to Davis Hamilton before striking out Neels.
Brandon Jaenke came out of the bullpen for Minnesota to lock down the save. He walked McDonald to bring the tying run to the plate, and two batters later, he plunked Davis to bring up Anderson as the winning run, but the hulking slugger hit a 108-mph lineout to end the game. Both games ended with the tying or winning run at the plate with a hard lineout.
Takeaways
- Colin Fitzgerald did not have his best stuff in Game One, allowing six hits with four walks and a hit batter in just three innings, but he was able to strand six runners on base to at least keep the game from spiraling out of control early.
- Slide over, Ben Heath, you’ve got some company. Michael Anderson’s moonshot to start Game Two tied the program record of 19 home runs in a single season. There are still seven games left for him to be the first 20-HR hitter in program history.
- Ben Hudson was perfect through three innings in Game Two. It is the first time in 43 games this season that the Nittany Lions have not allowed a baserunner the first time through an opponent’s batting order, but it didn’t matter in the end.
- Penn State hasn’t had a big strikeout issue this season at the plate, but they struck out 27 times in 18 innings today. Their per-9-inning average was just 5.9 entering today.
- Five straight games where Penn State’s much-maligned pitching staff has allowed five runs or fewer against a Big Ten opponent. They’re 0-5 in that span.
- Self-inflicted mistakes continue to torpedo any chance of Penn State winning games in conference play. After a double play calmed down a fifth-inning rally by Minnesota, Hudson gave free bases to two straight hitters to bring up one of the best hitters in the conference with the bases juiced. Even then, he induced a can-of-corn fly ball from him that Jesse Jaconski inexplicably pulled up on with Maddox McDonald much further away, allowing the ball to drop for the most decisive hit of the game.
What’s Next?
Penn State looks to avoid the sweep in the series finale at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park at 11:30 a.m. on Sunday, May 3. The game will be broadcast on Big Ten Plus.
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