Any worries about the quiet Penn State bats after being swept in Texas two weekends ago have assuredly been put to rest.
The Nittany Lion baseball team put up six-run innings twice en route to downing the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles Wednesday evening in Ft. Myers, Fla., 18-16.
Down 11-9 heading into the eighth inning, the Lions tallied their second six-run half inning. The Lions cashed in on two errors, including one throwing error on the pitcher that scored a run and advanced Grant Youngblood all the way to third base, to lengthen their offensive half of the eighth.
A Mike Deese sacrifice fly, a Blake Lynd single past the third baseman and a two-RBI shot through the left side by Bobby Jacobs later, Penn State regained the lead, 15-12 at that point, a third and final time for the contest.
Along with Lions' first baseman Cory Wine, Deese and Lynd finished the game with three RBIs each.
While the Eagles did score five more runs, Penn State (6-6) held out long enough to capture the one-game-apiece series split -- a two-game series that saw 57 total runs scored, 12 more than the previous high mark for Penn State baseball.
While the game featured 35 hits and five home runs total by the end, Penn State pitcher Paul Cianciolo, in his first collegiate start, gave up only three hits, no earned runs and had three strikeouts in his first three innings of work before being pulled in the middle of Florida Gulf Coast's six-run explosion in the fourth.
Cianciolo finished his first start giving up eight hits, three strikeouts, two walks, three earned runs and six runs total in 4.1 innings of duty.
Overall, the 34-run game marks the highest-scoring affair Penn State has played in since April 10, 1998 when Northwestern defeated Joe Hindelang's squad, 20-17.
