Penn State baseball’s 2022 season started out rough as the Nittany Lions went on to lose three of four at the Team USA Baseball Complex in Cary, NC.
The Nittany Lions faced off against Monmouth, LIU and Northeastern over the three-day invitational, getting out-scored 29-10 in its three losses.
Saturday was the lone bright spot of the weekend as Penn State split a double-header against LIU, winning Game 1, 14-3.
Catcher Matt Wood had himself a game, going 3-for-4 with two home runs, a double, four RBI and four runs scored.
All nine starters in the lineup scored at least one run in the blowout victory and all but one recorded at least one hit. Wood was one of four players with multi-RBI days.
Kellan Tulio had a fantastic day on the mound, throwing five innings of one-run baseball, striking out four and giving up five hits on 78 pitches.
Jaden Henline closed out the game in relief, throwing four innings and giving up just one earned run on 60 pitches.
Game 2 of the doubleheader saw Penn State jump out to a 5-0 lead, knocking LIU starter Ryan Neuweiler out after two innings.
The Nittany Lions led 6-3 after two, recording eight hits off Neuweiler. However, PSU was limited to just two runs and four hits the final seven innings of play.
LIU went on to score eight runs between the fourth and seventh innings, holding Penn State hitless after scoring two runs within the first two outs of the seventh.
Kurt Lange recorded the save for the Sharks, striking out five Nittany Lions batters in 3.1 innings of work and just 27 pitches.
Against Monmouth and Northeastern, Penn State recorded just two runs and 10 total hits, striking out 18 times as an offense while giving up 18 runs.
On defense, the Nittany Lions were sloppy the entire weekend, recording 10 errors, including five against Northeastern alone.
The aforementioned Matt Wood was one of the lone bright spots on the weekend as he went 6-for-14 (.428) with seven RBI, two home runs, eight runs scored and three walks. He had an RBI in all four games.
Other than Tulio and Henline, Penn State had some stellar contributors on the mound.
In Sunday’s weekend finale against Northeastern, starter Tommy Molsky gave up two unearned runs in six innings, striking out three and giving up four hits.
His replacement out of the bullpen, Tyler Shingledecker, had himself a great weekend out of the pen, giving up two hits and one unearned run while striking out five over two appearances and 2.2 innings of work.
Penn State ends the weekend with a 1-3 record and will stay down in Cary for this weekend, playing three games against Maine and a Sunday afternoon finale against William & Mary.
--------------------------------------------------------------
• Subscribe to our YouTube Channel
• Talk about it inside The Wrestling Room Board
