The blue and white found a way to stir up an offense in the final meetup of their three-game series with Rutgers, winning 14-13, despite a late-game comeback from the Scarlet Knights.
Penn State has struggled this season to get an early lead and had fallen behind 2-0 in the series against Rutgers before this game.
Within the second inning, the blue and white were already on the scoreboard, with junior Spencer Barnett’s double to centerfield starting the run. While Barnett didn’t score, his hit was the start of a productive inning.
Jack Porter and Kevin Karstetter got on base following the hit, and Preston Yaucher’s single to left field sent them both home to get an early lead of 2-0.
The hitting continued in the third inning, with a Bryce Molinaro double and Jack Porter’s home run. This home run added to a steady offense led by slugger Michael Anderson and Porter for the weekend.
It was his second home run of the series. Additionally, he got a hit on Saturday and a total of four RBIs on Friday.
“Big Mike is doing Big Mike things, and Moli’s been great, but to create that length behind those guys and give those guys some protection,” coach Mike Gambino said. “You got Porter-Barnett in that group right there, which is tremendously important.”
The fourth inning saw great capitalization on the blue and white’s behalf, scoring five runs on five hits. Three of those runs were scored off three back-to-back home runs, by Anderson, Molinaro and Barnett.
Anderson’s homerun brought in a total of three runs, sending Yaucher and Davis home, after they each singled to center field.
Molinaro made history with his additions to the Nittany Lions’ forward drive, putting up two home runs and four RBI’s in his four at-bats.
These two home runs added to his 11 on the season and made this season with the blue and white his third with 10+ home runs. He is one of two Nittany Lions in program history to do so.
“As you ebb and flow, you want to keep those valleys not as low and not as long,” Gambino said, “and that’s a really good job by him coming out of it.”
While Penn State, at one point, held a 12-run lead, Rutgers quickly climbed back into the game in the seventh inning. The Scarlet Knights scored seven runs at the top of the seventh, and these were left unanswered by the blue and white. This run by Rutgers closed the run margin to five in the eighth inning.
“The weird thing about the 10-run rule is that not ending a game on a 10-run rule can feel almost like a mid-game loss,” Gambino said. “We tend to react more than we respond, and we react negatively.”
In the eighth, Rutgers continued their success at the plate, scoring two more runs to close the Nittany Lion lead to two runs.
The Scarlet Knights added one more run to their tally in the ninth inning, but couldn’t extend their scoring past thirteen runs, allowing the Nittany Lions to escape with a win to close out the series.
“We hate where we are, but we are still in the playoff hunt,” Gambino said.
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