Penn State baseball falls in extra innings to drop the series with No. 18 Michigan, 2-1

Penn State baseball was an inning away from earning its first series victory of the season on Saturday, but ended up falling 8-6 in Game 3 to drop the series 2-1 to No. 18 Michigan at Medlar Field.

The Nittany Lions held a 6-4 lead to start the ninth inning of the final game when it all went downhill. They surrendered two runs on two errors as Michigan knotted the game up, and eventually won 8-6 in the 10th frame as Wolverine outfielder Jordon Rogers hit the game-winning RBI double up the middle.

“But I am proud of our kids for regrouping, had a chance to win the game today and just didn’t finish it off,” Penn State coach Rob Cooper said after Saturday’s two losses. “Lot of hurting kids downstairs right now because they wanted to win and know they should have.”

After winning the first contest Friday night 3-2, thanks to a 10th inning walk-off single by infielder Cole Bartels, Penn State allowed 17 runs on Saturday to the Wolverines’ potent offense and dropped the second game 17-4. It then allowed four runs in the final two innings of the third contest to drop the series two games to one.

While the Nittany Lions were able to score more than three runs in each game of a series for the first time all year after ranking ninth among Big Ten teams with a .247 batting average heading into the weekend, their pitching proved to be their downfall yet again — an ongoing theme for the team this season.

They entered the series with a 6.55 team earned-run average, which ranked 12th in the Big Ten, and allowed 27 hits through three games against the Wolverines.

Starter Bailey Dees took the mound for Penn State on Friday night and went 6.2 innings, striking out seven while only allowing two runs, and relievers Tyler Shingledecker and Mason Mellott closed out the game, allowing zero runs the rest of the way and combining for four strikeouts. State High grad Mellott earned his first win of the season.

Outfielder Tayven Kelley opened the scoring in the second inning by doubling to left field to bring home a runner, and immediately after Parker Hendershot singled to left field to put the Nittany Lions up two.

The Wolverines were able to tie the game when Christian Molfetta grounded out into an RBI in the third inning. The following inning saw Benjamin Sems fly out to left field to bring home the game-tying runner.

Curtis Robison put Penn State in position to win the game with a leadoff double to left field in the 10th inning. After an intentional walk to the next batter, Bartels blasted the ball down the third base line to claim his team’s victory.

The first game of Saturday’s doubleheader saw the Nittany Lions jump out to an early, first-inning lead as freshman Johnny Piacentino drilled his fourth home run this season to left field.

Starter Conor Larkin pitched an impressive three innings to start the game, allowing only one hit. But in the fourth inning, he lost control of his command and gave up a two-run home run to Wolverine’s outfielder Clark Elliott followed by a sac-fly to Sems as they took a 3-1 lead into the bottom of the fourth inning.

Penn State rallied back as Piacentino hit a lead-off double and wound up scoring after two wild pitches from Michigan starter Cameron Weston. A few batters later saw Kelley hit a double to right field and the Nittany Lions regained the lead, 4-3.

The next inning Larkin walked a batter and allowed a double followed by a wild pitch where he was pulled in favor of Shingledecker. Larkin allowed six earned runs but struck out seven batters.

Michigan collected 14 straight runs from that point on, and ended the game with 11 total hits as they clobbered the Nittany Lions 17-4 to even the series at one heading into the second game on Saturday.

Kyle Virbitsky started the third game of the series for Penn State and was able to muster up 5.2 strong innings as he struck out seven batters while allowing four runs.

The Wolverines took the game’s first run in the top of the second inning as Sems singled into left field and scored Rogers from second base. But that 1-0 lead didn’t last long.

The Nittany Lions’ bats detonated the very next inning as they combined for five runs on four hits to take a 5-1 lead. Robison hit a crucial single to left field with two outs and the bases loaded to score two runs and Michigan relief pitcher Ben Dragani walked a batter later in the inning with the bases loaded as Penn State took the four-run lead.

After an additional insurance run in the fourth inning by the Nittany Lions, Michigan brought the game within two in the sixth inning as Rogers hit a two-run RBI single to make the score 6-4 Penn State.

Mellott had a solid outing in relief of Virbitsky, going 2.2 innings and allowing zero earned runs, but was given no run support as his team allowed two errors in the ninth inning and eventually fell in extra innings, 8-6. Relief pitcher Steven Miller was given the loss.

I thought (Mellott) did a good job, he’s a guy that we asked to do a lot (Friday), we brought him back and probably stuck with him too long,” Cooper said. “But he still did a great job, he got ground balls in the ninth inning there to close it out and we didn’t finish.”

With the lone victory on Friday night, Penn State now sits at 4-10 on the season and will travel to Rutgers next weekend for a three-game series with the Scarlet Knights starting at 2 p.m. Friday.