Despite slow start, sluggers double wins

The Nittany Lion baseball team spent its Spring Break in Texas, winning three games and doubling its win total for the season.

The Lions (6-9) entered the week at 3-5 and in the midst of a three-game losing streak, their only wins coming against a Norfolk State team not yet Div. I.

"I think it was a pretty good success," right fielder John Dacostino said of the games over Spring Break. "We didn't win as many as I thought we would."

The Lions opened their series in San Antonio with a 9-2 win over Notre Dame and a 5-4 loss to Creighton.

A quick trip to College Station to play Texas A&M only furthered Penn State's woeful Spring Break beginning. The Lions kept close for much of the game until the Aggies exploded for 16 runs spread out through the sixth, seventh and eighth innings en route to a 18-1 destruction.

Starter Chuck Romig took the loss, surrendering six runs on six hits in six innings. Left fielder Jeremy Dietrick continued to swing the hot bat. Deitrick's fifth inning home run, his fourth on the season, cut the 2-0 lead in half in the top of the fifth extending his hitting streak to 11 games.

Despite losing by 17 runs, Dacostino said Penn State's ability to hang with Texas A&M -- one of the top teams in the country -- for five innings still built confidence.

"After playing Texas A&M, even in defeat, it opened guys' eyes that we could play with anyone in the country," Dacostino said.

After battling the Aggies, the Lions went back to San Antonio to play in the Irish Spring Classic, where the Lions squared off, once again, against Notre Dame.

This time the Irish got the best of the Lions in a 9-8 extra-inning thriller. Notre Dame rallied for two runs in the bottom of the ninth, sending the game into extra innings. With a Notre Dame player on third in the bottom of the eleventh, Lion hurler Joe Martin planned to intentionally walk Irish batter J.J. Brock. But Brock slapped the third pitch into right field and sent home the winning run.

The Lions recovered well from the tough loss with a 20-5 drubbing of Northeastern Illinois. Nate Bump improved to 3-2 giving up just three runs in six innings and striking out eight. Deitrick went 2-for-3 with his fifth home run of the season, three runs batted in and four runs scored.

Failing to be consistent, the Lions fell to Creighton on the following day in a 15-10 barn burner. Lion hurler Matt Weimer lasted just four and one-third innings, giving up 11 runs on 12 hits.

Penn State secured a third-place finish in the Classic with a 12-3 victory over NE Illinois rounding out its Spring Break. Lion pitcher Matt Dalsey pitched seven strong innings of seven-hit baseball. Deitrick tallied two more hits and extended his hitting streak to fifteen games.

"It was a success in that we won three games," Deitrick, an All-Tournament selection, said. "We should have been 5-2."