Then he stepped out and looked again -- did he see what he thought he saw?

Friday, in a 6-6 tie ballgame in the bottom of the ninth inning and with the winning run 90 feet away, Hindelang asked Richmond to do something that defied all reason against the Indiana Hoosiers.

The call didn't make sense.

It was not the time for Hindelang's desired play.

It was risky.

It went against all baseball logic.

It worked.

With two strikes against Richmond, and the heart of the Lions' order to follow, Hindelang called for a squeeze play at the most inopportune time. Richmond, however, laid down a beautiful bunt up the third-base line as Penn State center fielder Michael Campo raced toward home plate.

"It surprised me a little bit," Campo said sarcastically as he chuckled.

"I walked down and he said the squeeze was on and I kind of looked up at the scoreboard to see the strike count. But it turned out alright."

But Hindelang's gamble almost backfired as Hoosiers pitcher Nick Otte made a play on the bunted ball and fired toward home. Otte's throw had Campo beat as he slid into home trying to avoid the catcher's tag.

The problem was Otte's throw was in the dirt, and when the dust cleared from Campo's slide, there was the ball -- lying in the batting circle and not in the Indiana catcher's mitt.

Hindelang's riverboat gamble worked, just like it had a decade previously.

"It was done to me 10 years ago in the Great Lakes League," Hindelang said. "When the guy squeezed on me I said, 'How can you do that? You don't squeeze with two strikes.' If he fouls it off or he swings and misses it people in the stands are saying, 'What, is the coach nuts?' "

He may have been nuts, but it was his team that left Beaver Field on the positive side of the score Friday.

But as Hindelang noted, his suicide squeeze play could not have worked unless every player involved did his part to make it happen. And luckily for Hindelang, they did.

Campo's good jump forced Otte to hurry his throw to catcher Brandt Childs. Hindelang got his wish as Otte threw a soft curveball that allowed Campo time to run and gave Richmond an easier ball to bunt. And with the game on the line, Hindelang got a picture-perfect bunt from a kid he was recruiting this time last year out of the Pittsburgh high school ranks.

"I was just happy to get it down," Richmond said. "All I was thinking was get the ball on the ground because I know Campo is fast. So if I did that I knew we would score."

When every player in the Penn State dugout jumped out and congratulated Campo after he was called safe, it was perfectly clear Richmond's prediction had come true.

The Lions had literally stolen the first game in a four-game series with the Big Ten's best team heading into this weekend.

And they did it on Hindelang's gamble.

"There is no defense for a properly executed squeeze," Hindelang said. "Maybe that wasn't the right call to make but that's baseball."