Long Ball Dooms 'Cats in 6-4 Loss to Penn State
April 18, 2003
Penn State Box Score in PDF Format
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Northwestern opened its conference weekend with a 6-4 loss to Penn State Friday afternoon in State College, Pa. The Nittany Lions hit a third-inning grand slam that proved to be the difference in the win. NU, which fell to 13-13 overall (5-6 Big Ten), scored single runs in the second, third, fourth and seventh innings. Northwestern scored first, plating one run in the top of the second inning off Nittany Lion starter, Clayton Hamilton. Center fielder David Gresky (North Royalton, Ohio/St. Ignatius) continued to swing a hot bat, leading off the inning with a double off the right-field wall. He moved to second when left fielder Dan Pohlman (Barrington, Ill./Barrington) flied out deep to left center field. Gresky crossed the plate of third baseman Anthony Wycklendt's (Glendale, Wis./Nicolet) groundout to second base. Penn State answered in the bottom half of the second, tying the score at one apiece. After a leadoff walk by Wildcat starter Dan Konecny (Ripon, Wis./Ripon), PSU put runners on first and third with no outs. Wycklendt made an errant throw to second on a groundball, allowing the lead runner to move to third. That runner came in to score on a double-play ball to second base. Konecny struck out the last hitter to end the inning.
NU recaptured the lead in the top of the third, scoring one run on two hits and a walk. Sophomore shortstop Jon Mikrut (Wauconda, Ill./Carmel) hit an RBI single through the right side, scoring Eric Roeder (Onsted, Mich./Onsted) from second base. Roeder reached on a ball misplayed by the Lion center fielder.
With the bases loaded and two outs, Penn State catapulted themselves into the lead when designated hitter Lance Thompson hit a 1-1 Konecny offering over the right-field wall for a grand slam. The long ball gave PSU a 5-2 lead after three complete innings. In the top of the fourth inning, Wycklendt plated his second RBI of the game when he hit a towering solo home run over the right center field wall. It was his third home run in two games and it made the score 5-3 Penn State. The Nittany Lions tacked on another run in the bottom of the fourth inning, loading the bases with no outs. Konecny gave up a sacrifice fly and induced two strikeouts to end the Lion threat. In the top of the seventh, NU scored its final run of the game when Mikrut tattooed the first pitch of the inning over the left-field fence for his third home run of the year. The solo shot made the score 6-4 Penn State. NU and Penn State are back in action tomorrow, when the two teams meet at 1 p.m. for a doubleheader.
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