Posted March 25, 2024 | Story by Kassie Vasellas | Photo by Meg Miller
UNIVERSITY PARK, PA. – Penn State fell in the last game of their first conference series of the season.
Debuting their camo jerseys, Penn State headed into this game with a walk-off win in the first game and a tough loss in the second game of the weekend series. They would also end up losing the third game of the series as the Wolverines had a strong game.
“We didn’t execute, the pitchers didn’t execute and we couldn’t play defense,” head coach Mike Gambino said.
Frankie Sanchez started off on the mound for the Nittany Lions and little did they know, the team would end up going through nine more pitchers. Mitch Voit would be the starter for the Wolverines and play through eight innings.
The Nittany Lions were the first to get on the board as Bobby Marsh had an RBI double in the bottom of the first to bring in Joe Jaconski.
Innings two through five were all about the pitching and defense as there were no runs scored by either team. The first pitching change for Penn State would come at the top of the fourth as Mason Horwat replaced Sanchez.
Shortly after in the top of the fifth, Anthony Steele would hop on the mound for the Nittany Lions and then top of the sixth would lead to Chic DeGaetano pitching.
Michigan would get on the board in the top of the six as Kyle Dernedde’s single brought in Dylan Stanton.
The top of the seventh is where the whole game changed and not in a good way for Penn State. Gambino put in Will Perkowski as the new pitcher but once there were bases loaded and two outs, he put in David Lee.
Stephen Hrustich would get a two-RBI double to extend the lead for Michigan. Gambino would then switch pitchers again and put Connor Thorneberry for a fresh arm. Stanton, Cole Caruso, Dernedde and Collin Priest would all get RBIs and make the score 7-1 still in the top of the seventh with two outs.
That would then lead to Gambino’s fourth pitching change in this inning as Ben DeMell headed to the mound. One runner would come in from a hit from Voit and then two would come in off of a wild pitch and mishandled ball by Matt Maloney.
The Wolverines had the lead 10-1 going into the eighth inning and the Nittany Lions had a long way to go to catch them.
“One of the things we are trying to learn and get better at as a group is how we respond when things don’t go well,” Gambino said.
Brandon Wingenroth would make his season debut for the Nittany Lions as he went in to pitch in the top of the eighth. Michigan would score its final point of the game off an RBI double from AJ Garcia.
The Nittany Lions would end up picking up the pace in the bottom of the eighth where they scored five runs but it was too late. They weren’t able to keep the momentum going into the ninth inning so they ended with a final score of 11-6.
Penn State had a total of 10 pitching changes throughout this game including the last one in the top of the ninth where James Lordi came in.
“We got a great pitching staff. We got a great pitching coach and they’re going to get better. At the end of the day, we’re all a team and we’re going to continue to improve towards the back end of the year,” J.T. Marr said.
The Wolverines move to 9-15 and will take on Michigan State on Tuesday. The Nittany Lions fall to 12-9 on the season and will play Pitt at home on Tuesday.
Kassie Vasellas is a first-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact her, please email kmv5506@psu.edu
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