Series Grades: Penn State Baseball vs. Iowa
The weather proved to be unkind to the State College area this weekend and Penn State baseball dealt with the aftermath.
Penn State only ended up playing two of the three scheduled games in its series against the Iowa Hawkeyes, both of which came in a doubleheader on Saturday.
The blue and white fell in the opening game 9-6 but rebounded later that day with an 8-4 win.
Here’s a look at how each position group performed during the weekend.
Offense: B-
The Nittany Lions scored a combined 14 runs in the two-game series but only mustered up 10 hits in the process.
In both games, the Penn State offense scored a majority of its runs early with a combined nine runs during the first two innings of each game.
Penn State did have two home runs during the series with both of them coming in game two as Grant Norris and Kyle Hannon went deep.
Norris’ shot was the one that started the offense up in that game with his three-run homer coming in the first inning.
Outside of those hits, only one Nittany Lion had a multi-hit game in either contest.
That was Tayven Kelly in the opening game as he went 2-for-3 with an RBI.
One of Kelly’s hits was a triple, a team-leading fifth on the season.
Pitching: B
Penn State outscored Iowa in this series, as the Hawkeyes scored 13 runs during the doubleheader.
The Nittany Lions got good production from a majority of the pitching staff during the series although most of it came in the closing game.
Jordan Morales got the start in that game and in a near-flawless outing threw four innings where he only allowed two hits while striking out three batters.
The game was also bookended by Steven Miller who only allowed one run in his three innings pitched to seal the win.
That wasn’t the only strong close to a game that Penn State had in the series as Tommy Molsky pitched the final three innings of game one where he struck out five batters in shutout baseball.
Molsky preceded Travis Luensmann in that game where he struggled in his four innings pitched allowing five runs and nine hits.
That was the most runs allowed by a Penn State pitcher in an outing this series but Daniel Ouderkirk came close after allowing three runs and three hits in just 0.1 innings in game two.
Defense: B-
The Nittany Lions committed three errors on the defensive side during the weekend with two of those leading to unearned runs.
Both of those would come in the game one loss with a Grant Norris error in the second inning would allow the Hawkeyes to cut their deficit to 4-3 and a Tayven Kelly error in the fourth would cut the lead to 5-4.
The Hawkeyes would go on to come back and win the game but a Jay Harry second inning error in game two wouldn’t have the same impact as Iowa failed to capitalize.
Coaching: B+
Rob Cooper and his squad needed to find a way to bounce back following a tough loss on the road against West Virginia and the Nittany Lions were able to remain competitive.
With the weather not helping much, Cooper was able to get the most out of his pitching staff during the doubleheader to garner a split.
Cooper and the Nittany Lions will now look to take the momentum from that series split on the road against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights.
Logan Bourandas is a senior majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email lxb5412@psu.edu.
