Returning home to Medlar Field at Lubrano Park, Penn State immediately turned around all negatives in its first Big Ten clash of the year against Iowa, with a decisive 11-6 win, its second massive at home.
Yet, in the second clash against the Hawkeyes, the blue and white took its first home loss of the season on the chin, 13-4, as the high-powered Iowa offense shut down the Nittany Lions.
For the second game of the series, coach Mike Gambino sent one of Penn State’s most in-form starters to the bump in Ben Hudson, yet the righty couldn’t make good on his attempt to continue recent positive results. Ultimately, the sophomore’s day only lasted 4.2 innings, with seven earned runs. After starting the year with only four earned runs in three starts, Hudson allowed 18 in his last two appearances.
With an early 3-0 deficit due to Hudson’s issues on the mound, the Nittany Lions finally got on the board in the bottom of the fourth courtesy of a Bryce Molinaro single to drive in a run, which marked his fourth consecutive game with an RBI.
Eventually, when it flipped over, however, the offensive barrage continued from Iowa, with four more runs tacked on via a pair of home runs. The Hawkeyes, which entered with the fewest long balls in the Big Ten, ended Hudson’s day with those swings.
Ethan Bauerschmidt, who came in to replace Hudson, couldn’t remedy the situation on the rubber. With a triad of walks and a hit-by-pitch, allowing hits from the Hawkeyes to extend their lead. The Nittany Lions scored their own run with walks and savvy baserunning, but it wasn’t much to cut into the lead, heading into the seventh.
Mason Butash, who replaced Bauerschmidt to finish out the sixth, got out to a strong start, but again continued the pitching struggles for Penn State, allowing a pair of singles, which resulted in a run, and a walk to end his day.
Iowa started to show its own pitching problems, with five walks in the bottom of the eighth to plate two Penn State runs, but the Hawkeye bats immediately got three runs back in the top half to cancel out the control issues.
The Nittany Lions’ offense couldn’t get anything going against strong Iowa pitching, only logging two hits on the day to 19 by the opposition. The blue and white allowed the same amount of walks and only struck out two more times than Iowa, but it just couldn’t generate any offensive momentum and only took what Iowa gave it, which wasn’t much.
Up Next
Penn State closes its first Big Ten series of the year with a chance to claim victory at 1 p.m. on Sunday against the Hawkeyes.
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