Penn State Baseball Continues Big Ten Play After Upset Win Over West Virginia
After the game of the year for Penn State baseball on Dollar Dog Night, the Nittany Lions look ahead to a Big Ten series against Purdue.
Coming into the series, the blue and white sit at 18-11 with a 1-5 conference record on the year. The last time Penn State faced a Big Ten team was a three-game series at the beginning of April that ended with Indiana taking two of the three games.
Penn State is coming off one of its wildest wins throughout the season after the team stormed back down 5-1 to win 11-6. The bottom of the sixth was the main difference maker for Penn State as Kyle Hannon hit an inside-the-park grand slam on wild throws by West Virginia.
Heading over to West Lafayette, Purdue holds a 14-17 record after it evened out following a rough patch against non-conference opponents. The Boilermakers got off to a 5-2 start before losing 11 of 16, then entering the in-conference part of their schedule.
Purdue is coming off a 4-1 loss against Indiana State where Mike Bolton Jr. went three of three with one RBI. The Boilermaker's bullpen held their own, however, too many walks led to easy scoring opportunities for Indiana State.
Now looking into the weekend matchup, Purdue comes into this one with the 34-22 all-time series lead. The last time these two teams played a three-game series in West Lafayette, Indiana was in 2014 when the Nittany Lions won two of the three games.
This will be an interesting Big Ten matchup as both teams thrive on opposite sides of the field.
Purdue ranks ninth in the Big Ten in hitting while Penn State holds the third spot with a .304 batting average. However, Purdue holds the fourth-lowest team ERA in the conference while Penn State sits in the middle of the pack at seven.
With both teams being polar opposites of each other, each inning should provide classic Big Ten action.
Keep an eye out for Travis Luensmann, Jaden Henline and the rest of Penn State’s bullpen to face the ninth and eleventh-best hitters in the Big Ten in Camden Melvin and Evan Albrecht.
On the other hand, Jonathan Blackwell and Purdue’s fielding will have to face Jay Harry, Thomas Bramley and Hannon. The big three for Penn State have generated multiple game-changing plays throughout the year.
The first game of the series is set to start at 6 p.m. on Friday, April 14 with game two starting at 2 p.m. on Saturday. The final game of the series will be on Sunday at 1 p.m. to cap off the third Big Ten series that Penn State has played this season.
Micheal Bolger is a sophomore majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, please email mpb6233@psu.edu.
