Wake up call
Sluggers' bats end coma vs. William & Mary

By WILLIAM KALEC
Collegian Staff Writer

After 12 games, the wakeup call finally came.

But early into the preseason schedule, Penn State baseball coach Joe Hindelang's Nittany Lions pitching staff was not in need of an awakening. Up until this past weekend's series with William & Mary, the young Lions hurlers had made substantial strides from last year's forgettable 6.63 staff ERA to become the foundation of Penn State's 6-6 record.

In fact, what it needed to emerge from its hibernation couldn't be found on the Penn State roster at all.

Instead, it was the Lions' bats that finally rose from their winter nap and started to look like the tools that helped Penn State hit over .300 as a team last season while cranking out 91 home runs.

And on Sunday, the day of rest, those bats did anything but.

"I think it was really good that we can come back like that, especially having such a young team," Penn State reliever Andy Wager said. "Everyone came together and we swung the bat well. The last few games we had pitching, hitting and defense come together."

Penn State averaged over seven runs per contest over the three-game series with the Tribe. The Lions' third, fourth and fifth hitters combined for a combined .417 batting average while tallying six RBIs. But the offensive rebirth didn't stop with the heart of the order.

Junior second baseman Eric Spadt went 2 for 4 in the eighth position Sunday and knocked out his second home run of the season, setting the tone for a second inning in which the Lions exploded for four runs in their 7-2 thumping of William & Mary.

The only thing that was able to stop Penn State against the Tribe was the dark of night. The second part of Saturday's doubleheader was delayed until Sunday because of darkness. But that only delayed something Hindelang knew was going to take place eventually -- an aluminum explosion courtesy of Penn State's bats.

"I am not worried, they will start hitting, it is going to happen," Hindelang said before this weekend's series. "They just have to do the little things, choke up on the bat and things will fall into place."

When the weekend was completed, Penn State's offensive damage was evident in the box score.

Twenty-two runs on 37 hits, 12 drawn walks, and 12 William & Mary hurlers had a chance to figure out how to cool the red-hot Penn State hitters -- all of them failed.

Penn State now returns to Happy Valley boasting a record above .500 for the first time since every senior member of the Lions was a freshman in high school. The Lions also return with something that was once lost, but after this weekend is now found -- their ability to light up the scoreboard in a hurry, something that could be dangerous to visitors to the always-windy Beaver Field.