The Horned Frogs Pick Up Two Wins Over Nittany Lions

Story posted May 7, 2016 in CommRadio, Sports by Mandy Bell

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. –The Texas Christian University Horned Frogs defeated the Penn State Nittany Lions in back-to-back games on Saturday afternoon at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park.

In the first game of the double header, TCU’s starting pitcher Brian Howard shut out the Nittany Lions, only allowing four hits through seven innings.  Penn State was able to tack on one run off of reliever Dalton Brown in the eighth inning from a Jim Haley RBI single to center field. 

In the second inning, Elliot Barzilli set the tone for the TCU offense by hammering a solo home run over the left field fence to put the Horned Frogs up 1-0.

Cam Warner led the Horned Frogs to the first-game victory by going 4-for-5 from the plate with an RBI single to left field in the fourth inning. 

The Horned Frogs went on to defeat the Nittany Lions 6-2.

In the second game, Penn State starter Sal Biasi had a quick one, two, three inning to set the tone for the Nittany Lions in the first inning.

 Penn State jumped out to an early lead in the bottom of the first inning with a Tyler Kendall RBI single up the middle and a fielder’s choice by Jordan Bowersox that knocked in Greg Guers. 

“We got a good first inning from Sal. That right there picks you up a little bit and gets us ready to go offensively,” Guers said. “I think it starts on the mound.  Once they get into a rhythm, get some outs, everything just starts flowing a lot better and a lot quicker.”

After taking the 2-0 lead, the Nittany Lions gave up three runs to the Horned Frogs on a Josh Watson home run and an RBI double to center field by Dane Steinhagen. 

Both teams went down silently from the second inning until the seventh when the Horned Frogs extended their lead to 4-2 on a fielding error by Conlin Hughes. 

The Nittany Lions answered in the bottom of the seventh inning when Guers singled through the right side to bring home Nick Riotto. Kendall then reached on a fielder’s choice to bring home Haley tying the game at four.

In the top of the eighth inning, Luken Baker singled through the right side to bring home the go-ahead run for the Horned Frogs to lead 5-4.

In the bottom of the ninth, the Nittany Lions had the bases loaded with two outs and Hughes at the plate. Hughes drove a ball to shallow right field that appeared as if it was going to fall in for a single, but right fielder Austen Wade was able to grab it just before it hit the grass. 

The Nittany Lions left 13 runners on base in the second game while the Horned Frogs left just six runners stranded.

“We tried to look at this like a super regional, like we had a chance of practicing like being in the tournament,” Penn State head coach Rob Cooper said. “We didn’t win game one of the super regional, so what we said was that in a super regional you are not out of it by losing the first game, so we have to get ready to go to win game two. Yeah we lost game two, so we have to learn from those things so we don’t have that happen.”

The Nittany Lions will be completing their series against the Horned Frogs at 1 p.m. on Sunday at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park.

 

Mandy Bell is a sophomore majoring in broadcast journalism.  To contact her, email amb6857@psu.edu.