The baseball was bouncing everywhere except off the Nittany Lions' bats in the bottom of the fifth inning against Kent State -- but they found a way to score seven runs.
The Penn State baseball team (10-13) used the big fifth to defeat the Golden Flashes, 10-8, Wednesday at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park.
The Flashes broke a 3-3 tie in the top of the fifth when Jimmy Rider scored on David Lyon's bloop single that floated just over the head of Lions first baseman Joey DeBernardis. But, their lead didn't last long.
The Lions took advantage of sloppy defense and wild pitching by the Flashes while scoring seven runs on just one hit in the fifth. Of the 10 Lions who batted, two reached on errors, three walked and one was hit by a pitch.
Penn State coach Robbie Wine said the team was due for some breaks to go its way.
"[Walks] have been working against us all year," Wine said. "It's about time we started being
patient up there, laying off some pitches and using the walk as a weapon instead of other teams using it against us."
Freshman Steve Snyder got the only hit in the Penn State fifth, but it was a big one. With the bases loaded and the Lions up by one, Snyder hit a triple to the gap to score three and extend the lead.
Snyder has made it a habit of coming up with timely hits for the Lions. The freshman has 15 RBIs on just 13 hits this season.
"In those at-bats, I'm not trying to do too much," Snyder said. "I'm just trying to put the ball in play, and it's worked out well so far."
John Walter got his first collegiate win as he pitched 5.2 innings in relief of Penn State starter Mike Franklin, who struggled to find the strike zone while allowing three runs in two-thirds of an inning.
The Lions were able to come back from the early 3-0 deficit and tied the game on a soaring two-run home run by Jordan Steranka in the third.
While blunders by the Flashes' defense opened the door for Penn State's fifth-inning rally, the Lions played solid defense. Heath Johnson made a running catch while crashing into the wall and later threw a runner out at home.
David Lutz, who pitched the final 2.2 innings for the Lions, said the defense -- which had no errors -- was a key to the team's success.
"I was extremely happy with the defense," Lutz said. "If you're throwing strikes and you're not making errors, you're going to be in a lot of games."
