Coming off a successful weekend down in North Carolina, Penn State baseball traveled north to Charlottesville, VA to take on a Virginia team in rhythm.
The Nittany Lions struggled against the Cavaliers, allowing 10+ runs in each of the weekend’s three games as Virginia swept Penn State.
Staying in Virginia this week before returning to Cary, NC for a final time, Penn State had its hands full against a tough VMI team, once again giving up 10+ runs to lose a fourth-straight game.
In those four games, Penn State was out-scored 44-10 and defensively, the Nittany Lions committed nine errors, eight in just the Virginia series alone.
Teams like the Cavaliers are going to make those errors pay, starting in the fifth inning of Game 1, where a throwing error from catcher Matt Wood eventually led to an eight-run inning.
Virginia had at least one 5+ run inning in each of the weekend series games, two of those innings being aided by Penn State errors.
In Tuesday’s game against VMI, the Keydets had one four-run inning in the third and two three-run innings in the fourth and sixth.
There were positives to take out of the last four games, though Penn State is currently on a four-game losing streak. Left fielder Cole Bartels and infielder Kyle Hannon recorded a hit in all four games, with Hannon having three-straight multi-hit games against Virginia.
Hannon, a sophomore who made nine starts last year, recording just four hits, had his best college weekend to date, going 7-for-8 with two runs scored against the Cavaliers.
In one weekend, he nearly doubled his entire hit total from his freshman year, quite an accomplishment for the infielder.
Bartels went 6-for-16 in the four games with an RBI and a run scored. His best game came in the series finale against Virginia, going 2-for-3 with a double.
Relief pitcher Tyler Shingledecker continued his incredible start to the season with two scoreless innings in the series finale against Virginia, extending his scoreless innings streak to start the year at 5.2 innings.
However, Shingledecker ran into trouble against VMI, giving up four earned runs and five hits in just an inning of work as he suffered the loss on Tuesday and his season ERA ballooned up to 5.40.
Sitting at 3-8, Penn State returns to Cary, NC to face UMass this weekend before returning home next Tuesday for the home opener against Niagra.
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