Penn State Edges Baseball in Game One

Saturday, February 20

Cary, NC

1:30 PM

Army West Point

0-2

Penn State

1-0

Army West Point

Penn State

Penn State Edges Baseball in Game One

February 20, 2016 | Baseball

Box Score

CARY, N.C. – The Army West Point baseball team dropped game one of it doubleheader against Penn State by a 5-4 final score on Saturday afternoon at the USA Baseball National Training Center.

The loss dropped Army to 0-2 on the year and Penn State improved to 1-1.

Sal Biasi pitched 6.0 innings and allowed one run to earn the win for Penn State as sophomore Matt Ball was saddled with the loss for Army. Biasi struck out eight Army batters, walked one and scattered four hits. Ball was charged with five earned runs on 10 base hits in 6.1 innings on the mound. Freshman Eamon Hannon threw 1.2 innings in relief of Ball and did not allow a hit in his collegiate debut.

Offensively, Josh White and Kris Lindner each registered two hits and Jacob Page, Justin Reece and Matt Hudgins added a hit apiece. Hudgins drove in two and White added one RBI for the Black Knights.

The Nittany Lions got the leadoff man on base in the bottom of the fourth inning of a scoreless game when Ball hit Nick Riotto was hit by a pitch. He advanced to second on a groundout and with two away, Austin Riggins singled to left field to put Penn State ahead 1-0.

Army quickly tied the game in the top of the fifth after Page led off the inning with a double. Reece's infield single put runners on the corners for White, who brought Page in from third with a groundout. Penn State limited the damage there and the game was tied heading into the home half of the frame.

Consecutive base hits and a wild pitch put runners at second and third for Penn State in the bottom of the fifth. Greg Guers grounded out to make it 2-1 before Jim Haley singled through the hole on the left side to push the lead to 3-1 for the Nittany Lions.

Penn State tacked on two more runs in the bottom of the seventh to lead 5-1 heading into the eighth.

White started Army's rally with a single and Lindner followed with a base hit to right to bring up David Monge. He reached on a fielder's choice and White scored as Army cut the deficit to three. A walk to Jon Rosoff loaded the bases for Hudgins, who singled up the middle and drove in a pair to bring Army within one run at 5-4.

At that point, Jack Anderson came into the game out of the Penn State bullpen and escaped the jam by getting a strikeout and a pair of groundouts to eliminate the threat. Anderson threw a scoreless ninth to earn the save and seal the 5-4 win for Penn State.