On Wednesday, Penn State baseball took on the No. 14 North Carolina Tar Heels in its second matchup against a ranked team this season. The Lions had their bats going early. But they couldn’t replicate the scoring output displayed over the weekend and ultimately fell to the Tar Heels.
Lions Lead Early
The Tar Heels struck first with a two-run home run to make it 2-0.
However, Penn State would strike right back in the second inning from an RBI single by Thomas Bramley and a sacrifice fly by Brandon Marsh, scoring Tayven Kelley and Jay Harry, respectively, to tie the game at two runs apiece.
The Lions would take the lead after Bramley scored on a wild pitch. A close game was seemingly brewing against the 14th-ranked team in the country.
Dominant 4th Inning Gives Heels the Win
Scoring would not occur again until the fourth inning when North Carolina scored seven runs. Two singles and a double scored runners to get the score to 5-3 UNC. A grand slam increased UNC’s lead to 9-3.
Penn State would add a run on the board in the fifth inning after right fielder Billy Gerlott hit a solo home run to make it 9-4. UNC added a run to their lead in its half of the fifth inning to make it 10-4 UNC.
UNC would add a three-run home run in the sixth inning to make the score 13-4.
Penn State would add its final run in the seventh inning when a Billy Gerlott single scored Kyle Hannon. 13-5 UNC.
UNC would add two more runs via two fielder’s choices to make the final score to be 15-5 UNC.
Next Up for Penn State Baseball
Now 7-4, the Nittany Lions return to the Team USA Ballpark in Cary, N.C., where they start a four-game series against Brown University on Friday.
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