ANN ARBOR, Mich. (May 22, 2004) - A depleted Penn State baseball team couldn¡¯t keep up with a powerful Michigan attack as the Wolverines defeated the Nittany Lions 9-2 in Game 1 and 7-0 in Game 2 Saturday at Ray Fisher Stadium. The Nittany Lions, which dropped to 27-26 overall and 16-14 in the Big Ten, lost their fourth straight game and seventh in the last eight contests. The two squads will be right back at it with another doubleheader 1 p.m. Sunday to close out the series and the Big Ten regular season. Game 1 on Sunday will be seven innings and Game 2 will be nine innings. Both games can be heard on Michigan radio via the internet by going to the link posted at www.GoPSUsports.com. Penn State began the day without four of its regular players available for various reasons. Starting centerfielder Derrick Barr (So. Williamsport, Pa.), starting second baseman Jim Leitgeb (Elkton, Md.), starting left fielder Matt Lewis (Arnold, Md.) and outfielder/designated hitter Lance Thompson (Brisbin, Pa.) were all out of the lineup and unavailable. The Nittany Lions got all started with a pair of two-out runs in the second inning of Game 1 to start the scoring. Sophomore Colin Runt (State College, Pa.) drew a one-out walk and stole second base. Freshman Joe Blackburn (Sinking Spring, Pa.), making just his sixth start of the season as the designated hitter, singled through the right side and Runt slid around the tag of catcher Jeff Kunkel to make it 1-0. Blackburn advanced to second base on the throw and wound up scoring on another two-out single through the ride side by senior Brett Showalter (Waynesboro, Pa.). But Michigan got to Penn State starter Sean Stidfole (New Bloomfield, Pa.) in the fourth inning to take its first lead of the game. Matt Butler and Chris Getz had back-to-back singles to start the inning. After getting Kyle Bohm to strike out looking, Stidfole surrendered an RBI single to Brandon Roberts and a two-run double to A.J. Scheidt to make it 3-2 Wolverines. Michigan took advantage of a one-out walk before slapping six singles to break the game open in the fifth inning. A walk to Butler, an infield bunt single to Getz and back-to-back ¡°Texas-League¡± singles to Bohm and Roberts made it 4-2 with just one out. Stidfole got Scheidt to strike out on three pitches, but Kunkel had a two-run single and Leif Mahler and Brad Roblin had back-to-back RBI singles to make it 8-2 and chase Stidfole from the game. Sophomore Alan Stidfole (New Bloomfield, Pa.), the left-handed twin brother of Sean, entered the game and got Eric Rose to groundout to end the threat. Bohm had an RBI single in the sixth inning to make it 9-2 Michigan. Roberts, Scheidt and Kunkel had two RBI each for the Wolverines. Showalter went 2-for-3 for Penn State and junior Michael Milliron (DuBois, Pa.) went 0-for-4 to end his 15-game hitting streak. Alan Stidfole gave up just one run on three hits in 3.1 innings of work. He also struck out two. Michigan connected on three unearned runs off of starter Aaron Tressler (Pennsylvania Furnace, Pa.) to jump out to a lead in the second inning of Game 2. Kunkel drove in Roberts and Scheidt, who had reached on a fielding error, with a single to left field and Leif Mahler had an RBI groundout. Getz had an RBI single and scored when Kyle Bohm got caught in a rundown between first and second base after singling to make it 5-0 after three innings. Brad Roblin had an RBI double in the fourth inning and Mahler added an RBI single in the fifth inning to make it 7-0. Jim Brauer struck out four and gave up just five hits over six innings of shutout baseball for Michigan. Michael McCormick pitched one perfect inning to close it out. Sophomore Scott Gummo (Tyrone, Pa.) had two hits in Game 2. For more information on Penn State baseball, please visit the official athletic website at www.GoPSUsports.com . Game 1 Boxscore Game 2 Boxscore
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