Game Notes [pdf format] WED.-SAT., MAY 16-19 Columbus Weather Forecast FIRST ROUND GAME If Penn State wins its opening game it will face the winner of the Purdue/Minnesota vs. Illinois game on Thursday at 7:00 p.m. If Penn State loses its opening round game it will face the winner of the Michigan vs. Ohio State game on Thursday at 3:30 p.m. LIONS HEAD INTO BIG TEN TOURNAMENT ON FOUR-GAME STREAK: Penn State will head into this week's tournament riding a four-game winning streak after sweeping Michigan State last weekend in the last regular season series of the season. Penn State closed out the regular season winners of seven of its last 11 games. TOURNAMENT TIDBITS: The Lions own an overall mark of 5-6 in the Big Ten Tournament over three previous appearances. Penn State qualified for the conference playoffs in 1996, 1998 and 2000. RADIO BROADCAST INFO: All of Penn State's 2001 Big Ten Tournament will be broadcast live on State College's 1450 AM WMAJ with Pat Boland handling the play-by-play. The broadcasts can also be accessed via the internet at www.GoPSUsports.com. HOTEL INFO: Penn State will be staying at the Holiday Inn Worthington during its stay in Columbus, Ohio. The number for the hotel is (614) 885-3334 and the fax number is (614) 431-4450. Any media requests should be directed to Penn State Sports Information Assistant Randy Press. Press can also be reached via cell phone at (814) 777-3161. FOUR-GAME SWEEP OVER SPARTANS FIRST OF SEASON: Penn State's four-game sweep over Michigan State to close out the regular season marked the first four-game sweep of an opponent by the Lions this season. Penn State took three games at Michigan previously this season before having the last game snowed out. HINDELANG FIVE AWAY FROM 1,000: Penn State head coach Joe Hindelang is currently five games shy of 1,000 during his career as a head coach. Hindelang has currently been at the helm during 995 games in his 23-plus year career and has posted an overall mark of 526-466-3 for a .529 winning percentage. PENN STATE-NORTHWESTERN RECAP: Penn State fell to 3-4 on its current homestand after it dropped three of four games versus Northwestern last weekend. The Lions opened the weekend with a 14-6 win on Friday, before losing the next three contests by a combined score of 19-7. After playing flawless defense in the first two games, Penn State committed three errors in each of the final two contests. The middle of the Nittany Lion batting order struggled throughout the weekend set as the team's No. 3-5 hitters combined to go 6-for-42 with four runs and two RBI over the four games. PERRY AND SMITHLIN STREAKING: Rod Perry (San Diego, Calif.) continued his torrid hitting last weekend versus Michigan State as he extended his team-best hitting streak to 12 games while finishing 5-for-11 with a home run, double and five RBI in the four-game series with the Spartans. Perry also leads the Lions with 23 stolen bases on the season, just four behind Michael Campo's school single-season record of 27 set in 1999. BIG TEN SHORTHOPS: Penn State wrapped up the regular season 15-11 overall in conference games and in fourth place...entering last weekend Penn State ranked fourth in the league with a .302 team average...the Lions rank sixth among the league's pitching leaders with a 5.31 ERA...Mike DeRenzo ranks third among the Big Ten leaders in batting average at .390...Dan McCall has the eighth lowest ERA in the conference at 3.84...Chris Wright is tied for the conference lead in RBI at 51...C. Wright also ranks third among the league leaders with 17 doubles and is tied for third overall 11 home runs...Rod Perry ranks third in the conference with 22 steals...Donnie Wright (.617) and Chris Wright (.604) rank eighth and ninth in the league respectively in slugging percentage...DeRenzo currently boasts the league's seventh highest on-base percentage at .472...McCall is limiting opposing hitters to a .232 clip, fourth-lowest in the Big Ten...Aaron Tressler boasts the fifth-lowest average versus opposing hitters at .253...McCall has fanned 65 hitters, tied for sixth in the conference and has tossed 72.2 innings o the season, 10th-most in the league. ONE-RUN DRAMA: After entering the weekend 3-9 in one-run contests, the Nittany Lions improved to 5-9 in one run affairs after claiming a pair of run-run victories versus Michigan State on the final weekend of the regular season. PENN STATE RULES THE STATE OF MICHIGAN: Following its four-game sweep of Michigan State on the final weekend of the regular season, Penn State has improved to 7-0 versus teams that hail from the state of Michigan. The Lions previously swept the University of Michigan in three-games on March 30-31 in Ann Arbor. NETWALL, DERENZO NAMED TO ACADEMIC ALL-DISTRICT SQUAD: Sophomore Mike DeRenzo and senior Chris Netwall were each named to the Verizon Academic All-America All-District 2 squad on Thursday. DeRenzo sports a 3.68 GPA in computer engineering and currently leads the team with a .395 average. Netwall currently ranks among the Nittany Lions' all-time leaders in home runs, hits and RBI while maintaining a 3.27 GPA in mechanical engineering. NITTANY LIONS DROP FIRST NON-CONFERENCE GAME AT HOME SINCE '99: Penn State's 7-6 loss versus Pace (N.Y.) last Sunday marked the first non-conference loss by the Nittany Lions at Beaver Field since they dropped a game to C.W. Post on April 28, 1999 by the score of 15-11, a span of 19 games. PACE (N.Y.) SERIES TIDBITS: Perry was the Lions' hottest hitter in Penn State's three-game series with Pace (N.Y.) on April 28-29. The junior multi-sport athlete posted a .583 average over the two games and recorded his second home run in as many weeks, a leadoff shot in the bottom of the first an 11-5 win in game two of Saturday's doubleheader. Perry also tied for the team-lead in RBI for the series with four and stole three bases in the three games. CHRIS WRIGHT CONTINUES TO MOVE UP THE CHARTS: Chris Wright (State College, Pa.) currently is fourth all-time in Penn State career annals with 129 RBI and is tied for third place on the career doubles list with 47. He also is tied for 10th in home runs at 24. DAN McCALL AMONG CAREER LEADERS: Dan McCall (Boalsburg, Pa.) picked up his team-leading sixth win of the season in the team's 14-6 win over Northwestern on May 4. McCall currently is tied for seventh overall on the Penn State career wins list with 19 and is among the school's all-time leaders in innings pitched (243.1/6th), strikeouts (207/6th), starts (42/4th) and appearances (52/7th). NETWALL SECOND ON CAREER HOME RUN LIST, THIRD IN RBI : Chris Netwall (Allentown, Pa.) currently ranks second overall on the Penn State career home run list at 34. The senior is nine round trippers behind Shawn Fagan for the top mark in school annals. Netwall is also third in career RBI at 136 and tied for third in hits with 212. WARCHAL LIKELY OUT FOR SEASON WITH SHOULDER INJURY: Penn State redshirt freshman infielder/outfielder Adam Warchal (Nanticoke, Pa.) will likely miss the remainder of the season due to a separated shoulder he suffered while sliding into home during the Pace series on April 28. Warchal had appeared in 29 games this season, while making 16 starts, and was hitting .178 with five RBI and 10 runs scored. DONNIE WRIGHT RETURNS TO LINEUP IN PACE SERIES FINALE: After missing five straight games due to a sprained ankle which occurred during batting practice prior to a doubleheader at Ohio State on April 21, regular PSU first baseman Donnie Wright (Bethesda, Md.) returned to the starting lineup in the team's final game versus Pace (N.Y.) on April 29. Wright finished 1-for-2 with a run scored and a pair of walks in his first action since the injury. NITTANY LIONS SPLIT SERIES AT OHIO STATE: Penn State looked to be in perfect position to become the first Big Ten squad to ever win a conference series at Ohio State's Bill Davis Stadium after defeating the No. 25 Buckeyes in the first two games of a four-game set on April 20-21 in Columbus by the scores of 8-3 and 9-4. It was not to be however as the Lions' defense and pitching abandoned them in the final two games of the series as they allowed 22 runs and committed 11 errors over the final two games, including a season-high six blunders in a 16-6 loss in the second game of Saturday's doubleheader. Junior Rod Perry (San Diego, Calif.) blasted his first homer since joining the Penn State squad in the team's 6-4 loss at Ohio State on Sunday. Perry drilled the first pitch of the game over the left center field wall to give Penn State an early 1-0 lead. It marked the first time this season that a Nittany Lion led off the game with a homer. PENN STATE SKIPPER HINDELANG RETURNS, WINS 300th GAME: Penn State head coach Joe Hindelang returned to the field after being hospitalized last week after complaining of nausea. After all tests were returned negative, Hindelang unexpectedly returned in time to coach the Lions' their 11-9 win over St. Bonaventure on Wednesday. The win marked the 299th win in Hindelang's career as Penn State skipper. Hindelang notched his 300th win at the helm of the PSU program on April 20 when the Lions defeated Ohio State 8-3. DeRENZO CONTINUES SOLID SEASON: Mike DeRenzo (Murrysville, Pa.) has continued his torrid season and is currently hitting at a .395 clip. His batting average ranks first on the Nittany Lion squad and third in the Big Ten. DeRenzo also has the highest on-base percentage among all Nittany Lions at .470. In addition to his solid offensive performance this season, DeRenzo has been nearly flawless while holding down the second base position. Currently DeRenzo has only made four fielding errors in 198 chances this season for a .980 clip. His did not commit his lone error until April 22 at Ohio State. LEADING OFF WITH A BANG: After going the first 40 games this season without a home run, Rod Perry has blasted two leadoff round trippers over the last four games. Perry opened the top of the first with a bomb to left versus Ohio State on April 22 and followed that by leading off the bottom of the first with another dinger versus Pace (N.Y.) on April 28. FRIGID TEMPS ABOUND IN WIN OVER BONAVENTURE: Penn State's 11-9 win over St. Bonaventure on Wednesday marked one of the coldest games played in the program's history as the game time temperature was listed at 36 degrees with wind chills as low as 15 degrees. Winds were whipping along at 10-20 mph and creating havoc on outfielders trying to track down fly balls. RICHMOND RETURNS TO LINEUP: Junior John Richmond (Pittsburgh, Pa.) returned to the lineup during the Purdue series after playing mostly a reserve role. Richmond has started 28 games this season and has recently assumed the role as the Lions' regular right fielder. The junior is hitting .351 overall with 16 RBI, including a team-best .412 versus Big Ten foes. STREAK BREAKERS: Penn State's 3-1 win in the second game of a double header on April 14 broke Purdue's 13-game winning-streak, which at the time marked the longest-such winning skein in the nation. WATSON NAMED BIG TEN PITCHER OF THE WEEK: Mike Watson (Altoona, Pa.) became the second Penn Stater to be honored with Big Ten Pitcher of the Week status when he was recognized for the period ending April 8. Watson pitched a three-hit shutout in Penn State's 1-0 win over Iowa on April 8 to earn the honor. It marked only the third start of his career. WATSON TOSSES FIRST COMPLETE GAME SHUTOUT: Penn State junior right hander Mike Watson (Altoona, Pa.) won his second straight start and tossed the Lions' first complete-game shutout of the season in the team's 1-0 win over Iowa on April 7. Watson, who limited Iowa to just three hits, has won back-to-back starts after spending the majority of his career as one of Penn state's top arms in the bullpen. Watson had just one career start entering this season. DAN McCALL TOSSES BACK-TO-BACK COMPLETE GAMES: Senior left-hander Dan McCall (Boalsburg, Pa.) threw his second-straight complete game and improved to 3-0 on the year while leading the Lions to a 3-1 win over Iowa on April 6. McCall fanned a season-high 11 batters in the win. PSU TOTALS SEASON-HIGH 26 RUNS AND 18 HITS AT CORNELL: The Lions put together its best offensive performance of the season as it registered season-highs with 18 hits and 26 runs in its 26-4 rout at Cornell on April 4. Five Nittany Lions finished the contest with multiple base hits, led by Zack Smithlin (Fair Lawn, N.J.) and Willie Melendez (Cayey, Puerto Rico) who each finished with three. The Nittany Lions also ripped a season-high five home runs in the win, each by a different player. Included in the home run barrage was the first career round tripper for Penn State freshman Matt Harter (Centre Hall, Pa.), who belted a three-run shot in the win. CHRIS WRIGHT BANGS OUT SIX RBI IN WIN AT CORNELL: Penn State junior Chris Wright (State College, Pa.) tied his career-high in the Lions 26-4 win over Cornell on April 4. Sophomore Zack Smithlin (Fair Lawn, N.J.) also contributed to Penn State's offensive outburst with a career-best five RBI. McCALL NAMED BIG TEN CO-PITCHER OF THE WEEK: Penn State senior left-hander Dan McCall (Boalsburg, Pa.) has been named Big Ten Co-Pitcher of the Week Big Ten Conference officials announced last week. McCall shared the honor with Minnesota's Mike Kobrow. McCall won his second straight start as he tossed the first nine-inning complete game by a Penn State pitcher this season in the squad's 2-1 win at Michigan last Friday. The senior allowed only one run while striking out five batters to improve to 2-0 on the season. The Boalsburg, Pa., native leads Penn State starting pitchers with a 2.90 ERA and ranks second with 40.1 innings pitched. His 40 strikeouts on the year lead the staff and already are more than his total of 39 during the 2000 campaign. DERENZO RIPS FIRST CAREER HOME RUN VERSUS WOLVERINES: Penn State second baseman Mike DeRenzo (Murrysville, Pa.) continued his torrid start to the season as he blasted his first career home run in game three of the Lions series at Michigan last weekend. DeRenzo, who was the surprise winner of the Lions regular second base position, is currently leading Penn State with a .407 batting average and also has tallied a team-best .407 on-base percentage. LIONS IN HOME OPENERS: With its 6-1 win over Bucknell in their 2001 home opener, the Nittany Lions improved to 8-3 overall in home openers since 1991. Penn State has won six of its last seven home openers at Beaver Field. PENN STATE IN CONFERENCE HOME OPENERS: The Nittany Lions are 6-3 in Big Ten home openers since joining the conference in 1992. Penn State had won its last four Big Ten home openers prior to a 3-1 loss to Indiana to open the home league slate last season. LIONS TAME WOLVERINES: With its three-game sweep of Michigan last weekend, Penn State has now won 14 of its last 15 games versus the Wolverines dating back to 1998. DON'T RUN ON NETWALL: Penn State catcher Chris Netwall (Allentown, Pa.) is one of the top all-around catchers in the Big Ten. Entering its series with Penn State, Indiana had stolen a total of 56 bases in 61 attempts. Versus Netwall and the Lions the Hoosiers only attempted to steal once and were thrown out in that lone attempt. At Michigan on March 30-31, Netwall erased each of the runners who attempted to steal and also managed to pick off a runner from first. LIONS TIE BANG 15 HITS AT MICHIGAN: Penn State registered a then season-high 15 hits in its 9-3 at Michigan in game two of a doubleheader on March 31. Wes Reohr (Mechanicsburg, Pa.) registered the first three-hit game of his Nittany Lion career to lead the offensive surge for Penn State. Doug Rodio (Cherry Hill, N.J.) also notched a trio of hits in the win over the Wolverines. Penn State previously recorded 15 hits this season at Virginia on Feb. 24. WATSON MAKES SECOND CAREER START : Primarily used as a reliever throughout his career, Penn State's Mike Watson (Altoona, Pa.) made only the second start of his career in 33 appearances at Michigan in game two of a March 31 doubleheader. DONNIE WRIGHT HAVING CAREER YEAR : Senior Donnie Wright (Bethesda, Md.) is having the best season of his career as he currently is among the Penn State leaders in home runs (10), RBI (37), runs (38), walks (25) and slugging percentage (.654). He currently holds a .371 batting average and has surpassed his single-season total for home runs in a season. RODIO SETS SCHOOL RECORD FOR SAC FLIES: Penn State junior transfer Doug Rodio enters the week as the school's single-season record holder for sac flies. Rodio, who currently has seven sac flies, broke the previous school mark with his seventh mercy fly of the year on April 8 vs. Iowa. D.WRIGHT BANGS OUT THREE BOMBS IN TWO GAMES AT DEL.: Donnie Wright was a bright spot in (March 17-18) three losses at Delaware. The first baseman belted three home runs in the series opening doubleheader on March 17, including a pair in the opening game. He also added a team-high five RBI versus the Blue Hens. SLOW STARTS, FAST FINISHES: The Lions have been out-scored by their opponents 87-70 over the first two innings of games this season. Foes are out-scoring Penn State 38-30 in the first and 49-40 in the second. SKIPPER HINDELANG NETS 500th CAREER WIN: Penn State head coach Joe Hindelang earned the 500th win of his 24-year head coaching career in the Lions 7-6 extra-inning win over Virginia on Feb. 25. Hindelang currently has an overall mark of 505-454-3, including a record of 288-254-2 in 10-plus years at the helm of the Nittany Lions. The other 218 came in previous stints at Lafayette and Philadelphia College of Pharmacy & Science. SEASON-OPENING WOES: With its 10-5 season-opening loss at Wake Forest, the Nittany Lions have now opened up the last three seasons with a loss. Penn State last won its season opener during the 1998 season, when it defeated this week's opponent, Charlotte 7-5.Since 1991, Penn State is 4-7 in season openers. ON THE ROAD AGAIN: Penn State played its first 24 games on the road to open the 2001 season before returning to Happy Valley to host Bucknell in the team's home opener on March 28. Overall, the Nittany Lions are scheduled to play 30 of their first 31 games away from Beaver Field. LIONS VISIT PARK FOREST MIDDLE SCHOOL: Members of the Penn State baseball team and coaching staff held an assembly at Park Forest Middle School in State College on Wed., Feb. 21. Nittany Lion skipper Joe Hindelang joined assistant coach Dave Jameson, who is also a teacher at the school, in stressing the importance of enhancing reading and writing skills. MORE PRESEASON HONORS: Street & Smith's recently ranked Penn State as the No. 25 collegiate baseball team in the country in its annual Baseball Preview Issue which hit newsstands Feb. 20. The Nittany Lions were slated at No. 25 in the publications top 25. Georgia Tech topped the poll at No. 1, while Illinois was the top ranked Big Ten squad at No. 15. Minnesota also made the poll at No. 22. WHO'S BACK: Penn State returns 21 letterwinners, including six starters and five pitchers from last season's squad that advanced to the first Super Regional in the program's history. Included in the returnees were 2000 All-Big Ten selections Chris Netwall (C), Dan McCall (LHP), Chris Wright (3B) and Pete Yodis (RHP). Netwall is among the school's career offensive leaders in numerous categories and is recognized as one of the best all-around catchers in the Big Ten after being drafted by the Colorado Rockies in last year's Major league Baseball Draft. Wright is the team's top returning hitter after posting a .382 average last season with nine home runs and 58 RBI. McCall and Yodis are expected to be two of the top starters in the Nittany Lions rotation. Yodis is the team's most experienced hurler after he notched a team-high 114.2 innings a year ago and a 3.69 ERA. McCall enjoyed a solid 2000 season as well registering a 5-2 record and a 3.86 ERA. Justin Nash (RHP) and true-freshman David Aardsma (RHP) are expected to round out Penn State's starting rotation. WHO'S GONE: The Nittany Lions saw a bulk of their offensive output graduate to the professional level as All-American Michael Campo, All-Big Ten standouts Shawn Fagan and Eric Spadt finished their eligibility. The trio accounted for 267 hits and 177 RBI while hitting at a .378 clip. Penn State also lost a pair of quality arms in Dan Goebeler and Scott Russo. The duo played a key role in 17 of the team's 45 wins last season. WHO'S NEW: Joining the Nittany Lions for the 2001 season will be 12 newcomers, a number of which will play prominent roles for the team this season. Three of the new faces which could make huge contributions early are right-handed pitcher David Aardsma and outfielders Rod Perry and Doug Rodio. ISN'T YOUR DAD...?: Penn State newcomer Brock Upshaw is no stranger to high profile athletes. The junior transfer from Virginia Commonwealth shares common bloodlines with former Major League Baseball standout Willie Upshaw, who is his father. In addition, Brock Upshaw's uncle Gene Upshaw is a former member of the NFL's Oakland Raiders and is the current head of the National Football League's Player Association. Another of Upshaw's uncles, Marvin Upshaw was a wide receiver for the Miami Dolphins. Currently, Brock's sister, Courtney Upshaw is a freshman on the Lady Lion basketball team. TWO-SPORT STAR: Penn State junior outfielder Rod Perry is also a member of the Nittany Lion football squad. Perry is expected to compete for a starting spot in the Penn State outfield this season after arriving in Happy Valley via the University of Southern California where he was a member of the Trojans' 1998 College World Series Championship squad. Perry is one of five Penn State student-athletes who compete in two sports. The others include Bob Jones (football, wrestling), Katie Schumacher (volleyball, basketball), Terrence Glover (football, track) and Shaun Anderson (swimming, track). QUARTET OF NITTANY LIONS ON ROTARY WATCH LIST: Four Nittany Lions were named in the recently released Rotary Award Watch List. The Rotary Award is given to the top player in college baseball each season. Named to the watch list were seniors catcher Chris Netwall, left-handed pitcher Dan McCall, right-handed pitcher Pete Yodis and third baseman Chris Wright. BASEBALL AMERICA HONORS NETWALL: Baseball America recognized Penn State senior catcher Chris Netwall as the top defensive catcher in the Big Ten Conference in its College Baseball Preseason Preview Issue. He was also slated as one of the top-50 senior pro prospects nationally this season in the publication's Fab 50 feature. NITS PICKED TO FINISH FOURTH IN BIG TEN BY BASEBALL AMERICA: Baseball America tabbed Minnesota as the favorite in the Big Ten Conference in its preseason preview, followed by Purdue and Illinois. The Nittany Lions were slotted in the fourth spot, just ahead of Ohio State and Michigan. IN THE RANKINGS: Penn State was mentioned by each of the major polls in their respective preseason editions. The Nittany Lions were ranked as No. 56 in Baseball America's preseason top 100. Penn State received the 37th-most votes in the USA Today/ESPN preseason coaches poll and were ranked No. 40 in Collegiate Baseball's Preseason Fabulous 40. 2001 Schedule Notes: FOUR PLAYERS, ONE SIGNEE SELECTED IN DRAFT: Seniors Shawn Fagan and Eric Spadt, along with juniors Chris Netwall and Scott Russo were among the players selected in the 50 rounds of the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft. NITTANY LIONS ON THE AIR: The radio and internet broadcast schedule for Penn State baseball was finalized recently and Nittany Lion fans have reason to celebrate as 30 of the next 36 Nittany Lion games will be aired via the radio and/or internet. LOCAL TALENT CONNECTION: The Penn State baseball squad boasts a total of six players from the Centre Region, including four graduates of State College Area High School. Senior Dan McCall, juniors Chris Wright and Jason McIntyre along with true-freshman Aaron Tressler each played for the Little Lions prior to joining the Nittany Lion squad. Stolen Bases (Season) Sacrifice Flies (Season) Hits Home Runs RBI
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