Robbie Wine said although he knew there would be an offensive cold streak, he admitted he didn't think it would impact the whole team.
"We were tearing it up for a while and I guess inside I was waiting for the lull, but I didn't think it would be a team [lull]," coach Wine said. "I thought it would maybe be one or two guys to slow down."
In the Penn State baseball team's 4-3 loss to Kent State Wednesday night, the Nittany Lions were held scoreless for the final six innings.
For two of those innings, the Lions had their leadoff batter reach on a single but couldn't drive him in.
Penn State also had a rally in the ninth inning, as Ryan Boonie singled to right for a one-out single.
That prompted the Lions to bring in freshman Sean Deegan to pinch run.
Trying to move into scoring position as the game-tying run, Deegan took off for second base with Louie Picconi at the plate.
A quick throw by Kent State catcher David Lyon gunned down Deegan, who was looking for his first career stolen base.
Picconi then ended the night by striking out looking.
The ninth inning capped off a night where the Lions outhit the Golden Flashes, 9-8, but were unable to come up with the clutch hit late in the game.
Regardless, Penn State remains optimistic.
"We've been hot all this year with our bats," Jordan Steranka said. "We knew it was going to catch up once in a while -- the cold bats. But we don't think anything of it. We're going to take it one game at a time, one pitch at a time. We'll be back."
The Lions' strongest offensive threat for the game was senior Mike Deese. The left fielder went 3-for-4 in the game and drove in all three runs. He just missed a home run in the bottom of the third inning when he hit one off the wall in left-center field.
Despite the individual success, Deese said it gets "all erased" when the team loses.
The players said one of the reasons for the struggles at the plate was all the relievers Kent State used. Starting pitcher Ryan Mace was taken out of the game after he threw 49 pitches in three innings. The Golden Flashes then went with five pitchers for the last six innings.
Steranka said the Kent State bullpen was the best one he's seen since Texas.
But Wine also said one reason for the offensive problems is everything leveling out.
"The other side is the law of averages," Wine said. "I'm not worried about the offense. We have the guys capable of putting up some numbers over the course of a season. I guess going into Michigan we want our offense to be clicking on all cylinders. But it's impossible; I've never seen a guy or team continue a streak we were on the whole season. I'm not worried about it."
