Penn State Baseball Falls in Weekend Finale

Penn State baseball lost decidedly Sunday, falling to Holy Cross 11-5. The defeat comes after a run-heavy sweep of a doubleheader on Saturday.

After a slow start, the Nittany Lions are now 6-3 on the season.

Runs Come Early and Often

Penn State was able to take the early lead in the game. After leadoff hitter Kyle Hannon got on base, shortstop Jay Harry hit his first home run of the season, giving Penn State the 2-0 lead.  

Jay Harry!!! After Hannon draws a walk, Harry crushes a fly ball over the wall in right! His first homer of the year!

B1 | PSU 2, HC 0#WeAre pic.twitter.com/3h5K1fI4Vz

— Penn State Baseball (@PennStateBASE) March 5, 2023

Holy Cross answered with its own two-run home run in the second inning and tied the game 2-2. They were able to load the bases and capitalize off of the opportunity by taking a 3-2 lead on a walk.    

However, the Lions should never be counted out, as catcher Josh Spiegel scored due to a fielding error that helped Grant Norris reach first and tied the game again at 3-3.

Pitching Woes Loses it for Penn State Baseball

Pitching troubles came for Penn State in the top of the third inning. Holy Cross scored six runs as a result. After loading the bases, they scored from a single to regain the lead 4-3. The bases were loaded again, and a wild pitch let every runner advance and, as a result, made it 5-3 Holy Cross. 

A fielder’s choice allowed two runs to score, the latter due to a throwing error from Penn State. The rest of the runners left scored courtesy of a groundout and single that got the Holy Cross lead up to nine runs.  

Penn State would again get on the board in the fourth inning from a Kyle Hannon double that scored freshman DH Bobby Marsh and made the score 9-4. Bramley also scored Hannon in the sixth inning to make it 9-5.

Holy Cross would add two more runs in the ninth inning from a 2 RBI single that brought the final score to 11-5.

Starter Tommy Molsky picked up the loss after giving up four earned runs and pitching only two innings.

Rebound Opportunity

Penn State baseball looks for redemption against Holy Cross when they play them again at 1 pm on Monday, March 6th.