Penn State baseball falls to Nebraska in Big Ten Tournament Semifinals

For the second year in a row, Penn State baseball has seen its exemplary run in Omaha come to an end at the hands of Nebraska. The Nittany Lions were bounced from the Big Ten Tournament Semifinals following a 6-3 loss to the Cornhuskers on Saturday evening.

Nebraska jumped out to an early lead on starting pitcher Ben DeMell with a two RBI single in the bottom of the second inning. DeMell went two innings, striking out two while allowing two runs on three hits.

The Nittany Lions responded with three unanswered runs, spearheaded by home runs from Jesse Jaconski and Matt Maloney in the top of the fourth. But the Huskers would follow with a pair of their own runs in the bottom half of the inning, reclaiming a 4-3 advantage.

Husker’s left fielder Gabe Swansen tacked on a two-run shot in the seventh to extend the lead to three. While getting four runners on base over the final two innings, the Nittany Lions were unable to knock any more runs home.

Matt VanOstenbrid ultimately took the loss for Penn State after two earned runs and four hits over 1.1 innings.

Despite Saturday’s outcome, Pat Kraft and the Nittany Lions athletic department can’t help but be pleased with the direction of the Penn State baseball program under Mike Gambino. After setting the program record for the most wins by a first-year manager last spring, Gambino led the Nittany Lions to 33 wins this season, the second-most in Penn State baseball history.

Making the conference title game a year ago, the Nittany Lions upset No. 5-seed Washington and No. 4-seed USC earlier in the week to make the Big Ten Tournament Semifinals in consecutive years for the first time since 2001.

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