Penn State Baseball Game Preview vs. Bucknell
Sandwiched in between consecutive Big Ten series on the road, Penn State will return to Medlar Field on Wednesday for an out-of-conference showdown against Bucknell.
The Nittany Lions found some success over the weekend, as they traveled to College Park and won one of three games against the No. 23 Maryland Terrapins.
That series opened on Friday and the blue and white hung in tight with the Terrapins for the first seven innings of the contest before the potent Maryland offense came alive with a three-run homer from Chris Alleyne en route to a 8-4 Terps victory.
Penn State changed everything the next day, though.
Facing the ace of the Maryland pitching staff in Ryan Ramsey, the Nittany Lions were held scoreless through the first five innings before Johnny Piacentino went deep for his first home run of the season.
From there, both sides went back and forth until the 10th inning where the Nittany Lions broke things open with big hits from Tayven Kelley and Jay Harry to lead Penn State to a big 6-4 upset win.
Luck ran out in the final game of the series, as despite a Cole Bartels home run in the second inning, the Nittany Lions suffered a 7-2 loss.
Now Penn State looks to collect a big win against a Bucknell Bison team struggling to get back to the .500 mark on the season.
The Bison are coming off a two-game series split against Lafayette in what was a doubleheader.
That weekend started off with a Bison win as the offense came to play by putting up 14 runs in a game that only lasted seven innings.
Jacob Corson had four hits out of the cleanup spot, with one of them being a home run, to go along with six RBIs, as he paced the Bison offense in the victory.
The Bison offense combined for 18 hits during the contest, which tied for most in a game this season with a game against Navy earlier in the year.
The second game of the doubleheader was much closer, as the Bison missed on big opportunities by leaving 10 men on base in a 5-4 loss.
Penn State is the second and final Big Ten team that Bucknell will be going up against this season, as it lost against Iowa 3-0 back in February.
This game will be the first of two games between these two teams, as they will meet up once again on April 26 which will also be played in University Park.
Logan Bourandas is a third-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email lxb5412@psu.edu.
