Baseball

Things didn’t start out well for Elliot Searer on Saturday, as he forgot to bring his jersey to the ballpark. But the Searer’s afternoon ended on a high note with his teammates swarming him after he hit a walk-off single.

Searer — who donned No. 26 instead of his usual No. 10 on Saturday —sent a line drive into left-center field which fell in for a hit with two outs in the 10th inning, and second baseman Luis Montesinos scored on the play to lift Penn State (5-15, 1-1 Big Ten) over Indiana, 4-3.

After the game, Searer said he accidently forgot to put his jersey in his bag before he left for the stadium and added he doesn’t plan to switch jersey numbers, despite hitting the game-winning single wearing No. 26.

The game was postponed from a 2:05 p.m. start time to a 5:15 first pitch due to rain, but it didn’t seem to matter to Penn State starter Joe Kurrasch. The lefty hurled seven innings, and allowed only two runs — both coming via sacrifice flies.

Kurrasch was in line for the win, but didn’t get it as the Hoosiers (9-14, 1-1) tied the game in the top of the ninth inning on a Chad Clark RBI double. Kurrasch wasn’t overpowering, but was effective and also got some great help from his defense as both center fielder Steve Snyder and Montesinos made diving plays in the fifth inning. Neal Herring, who threw a scoreless tenth inning, ended up getting the win for the Nittany Lions.

Offensively, Snyder led the way for Penn State with three hits and the Lions had a balanced attack with eight of their nine starters getting a hit on Saturday.

Penn State and Indiana wrap up their three-game series at 1:05 Sunday afternoon at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park.