Penn State baseball struggles in blowout loss against Milwaukee

posted March 20, 2022 in CommRadio, Sports by Carlos Garcia

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — In its first home series of the campaign, Penn State failed to sweep Milwaukee on Saturday afternoon.

The blue and white fell 12-0 as the Panther offense had its way in the contest.

The pitching clouded the game for Penn State, giving up four runs in the 1st inning. Starting pitcher Mason Mellot allowed all four of those runs off three hits in just 0.1 innings pitched.

Ryan Partridge stopped the bleeding for a while, allowing just one hit and one run in 2.2 innings.

Left fielder Cole Bartels mentioned that the pitching shouldn’t affect the hitters when they’re down. 

“It really shouldn’t have any impact. Hitters should be able to go in there and do their job when it matters, in baseball and sports winning and playing well is kinda contagious so I think that it sometimes has a little bit of an unconscious effect on us,” Bartels said.  It’s hard to come back, especially when you're down, I don't know what it was in that first inning.”

At the plate, the Nittany Lions struggled early on, and never got it going. Their first hit came in the bottom of the 5th when center fielder Billy Gerlott singled to center.

Penn State ended the game with just four hits which falls well below its season average.

Although the blue and white took two of three against the Panthers, coach Rob Cooper wants his team to just move on and prepare for their next game.

“I know we got Rutgers on the weekend but we got Youngstown, that’s all we got to worry about right now,'' Cooper said. “Let’s get ready to go on Tuesday and take the really good stuff we’ve been doing the last four games, get back to who we are.”

In the other dugout, it was impossible not to succeed with the many different players joining in on the offensive attack.

For the Panthers, third baseman Aaron Chapman provided the critical firepower on offense, going 3-4 with 5 RBIs. His season average is now .367.

Following him was center fielder Ty Olejnik, who went 2-4 at the plate and had three runs.

The real star on Sunday was Milwaukee’s man on the mound: AJ Blubaugh. Blubaugh was exceptional in his seven innings, allowing just three hits and no runs.

Although his four strikeouts may not show his dominance on paper, Blubaugh faced 24 batters and put his fielders in a position to make easy plays on the diamond.

Penn State will host Youngstown on Tuesday at Medlar Field, while Milwaukee will travel to face Valparaiso.

Carlos Garcia is a second-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email him at cag6082@psu.edu.