Tuesday, April 1
University Park, Pa.
5:30 p.m.
Bucknell University
at
Penn State
Photo by: Alisa Mitchell
Baseball Visits Penn State Tuesday in State College
3/31/2025 4:44:00 PM | Baseball
Bucknell (11-15, 3-5 PL) at Penn State (17-10, 6-6 Big Ten)
When:Â Tuesday, April 1, 5:30 p.m.
Where: Medlar Field at Lubrano Park
Watch: B1G+
Live Stats
Bucknell at a Glance
When:Â Tuesday, April 1, 5:30 p.m.
Where: Medlar Field at Lubrano Park
Watch: B1G+
Live Stats
Bucknell at a Glance
- The Bison travel west to State College on Tuesday for a clash with Penn State at 5:30 p.m. at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park. Â
- The Bison took on Holy Cross and Army in doubleheaders on the road this past weekend. The Orange and Blue swept Holy Cross on Friday to snap a 12-game road losing streak to the Crusaders, then were swept on Saturday by Army.
- Bucknell is currently tied for fourth with Lehigh and Lafayette with a 3-5 record in the Patriot League. Navy leads the league with a 7-4 record, taking down Army in four of its five games between the two teams. Holy Cross moved to second with a 5-3 record after a sweep over Navy on Sunday, and Army sits in third with a 6-5 record.Â
- Bucknell stole Game 1 from the Crusaders, pulling off a seventh-inning comeback to win 6-5. The Bison trailed 5-1 and had just two hits heading into the final inning. The Bison rallied off five consecutive hits to start the inning, including RBI knocks from senior Brady Karp, sophomore Billy Fluharty, and senior Tyler Dunn to cut the deficit to 5-4. With Fluharty at third, senior Billy Kender hit a slow grounder to third, and Fluharty beat the throw at the plate to even the score 5-5. The Crusaders got the second out, but a clutch piece of hitting by junior Ryan Facinelli scored Kender on a big swing into the right-centerfield gap to put the Bison in front.
- The momentum carried right into Game 2 as the Bison exploded for 20 runs on 11 hits. Bucknell drew a program-record 20 walks and tied its team record with seven hit batters. The Bison had crooked frames in five of the nine innings, including five in both the eighth and ninth. Seven different Bison had multiple RBIs. Bucknell's previous record was 14 walks, most recently set against Susquehanna in 2007. The last time seven Bison were hit with a pitch seven times was in 2013 against Penn State.
- The Bison teed off in Game 1 against Army as Karp and junior Michael Trommer each blasted a three-run homer in the first inning as BU took a 7-0 lead. The lead was undone by the second inning as Army rallied for two in the first and six in the second to take an 8-7 lead. The Black Knights eventually pulled away to a 14-8 victory.
- It was a back-and-forth Game 2, and Army held off Bucknell's comeback efforts to win 9-7. The Bison trailed 2-1, tying the game 2-2 in the fourth. Both teams traded a three-run frame to for a 5-5 game after the top of the fifth, but a four-run fifth for the Black Knights was enough to hold on for the win.
- Freshman John Calabrese is red-hot, and on Monday he earned Patriot League Rookie of the Week and Bison of the Week honors. Calabrese went 7-for-12 at the plate with four RBIs and five walks across the four games. He now has a six-game hitting streak and has reached base in 13 of his 19 plate appearances. Calabrese made his debut with a pinch-hit single against FAU and has become a mainstay in the BU lineup.
- In 14 games with 10 starts, Calabrese is batting .459 with a .568 slugging percentage and a .592 on-base percentage —good for a 1.160 OPS. Calabrese is crushing right-handed pitchers with a .471 batting average and is 7-for-14 with runners in scoring position.
- Dunn has also stayed hot, extending his hitting streak to 10 games and his on-base streak to 19 games. Dunn had five hits, four RBIs and five walks over the four-game weekend. He has a .358 batting average with a 1.093 OPS. Over the 10-game hitting streak, he is batting .447 with six multi-hit games, 11 walks and 14 RBIs.
- Dunn is climbing several career program records this season. The four-year starter ranks 14th in games played (159), 12th in games started (153), 13th in at-bats (567), 19th in hits (156), 15th in RBIs (104), 7th in walks (80), 16th in hit-by-pitches (20), 20th in doubles (30), and eighth in sacrifice flies (9).
- Fluharty is third on the Bison with a .278 batting average. Fluharty had a hit in all four games last weekend and currently has an 11-game hitting streak. The centerfielder drew three walks and was hit three times across the four games. Fluharty led the Bison with eight runs scored.
- Karp and Trommer each led BU with six RBIs at Holy Cross and Army, with both blasting a three-run homer in the first inning of Game 1 at Army. It was Karp's first of the season and Trommer's second. Trommer then went yard again with a solo shot in Game 2. Trommer has a .250 batting average and leads the Bison with 24 RBIs. Karp has a .459 on-base percentage in 12 games this year, walking and getting plunked eight times each.
- Facinelli is fourth on the team with a .264 batting average. He has a .429 slugging percentage and a .398 on-base percentage. Facinelli had the biggest hit of the weekend for the Bison, capping off Bucknell's comeback win in Game 1 with a two-out, RBI double to score Kender from first to give BU the 6-5 lead.Â
- Sophomore Chris Morabito had a .600 on-base percentage over the weekend. The left fielder was 4-for-12 at the plate with seven walks. Morabito had five RBIs in Game 2 at Holy Cross, roping a two-run triple and a three-run triple. Â
- Senior Billy Kender has a nine-game on-base streak. Kender had five hits and four RBIs four the Bison, including the game-tying RBI in Game 1 at Holy Cross. The second-baseman was 3-for-6 at the plate with two RBIs in Game 2 at Holy Cross. Kender drove in both of his runs on a single as part of a five-run eighth inning.Â
- Junior Garrison Bullock had a good weekend for the Bison. Bullock was 3-for-6 at the plate in two games with three RBIs, four walks and a hit-by-pitch. He reached base in all six plate appearances in Game 2 at Holy Cross. The catcher was 2-for-2 with three RBIs, three runs scored, two walks and a hit-by-pitch.
- Tyler O'Neill has a 4.15 ERA after making his seventh start this season. Holy Cross tagged O'Neill for five runs in the first three innings. The senior allowed two home runs, which accounted for four of the five runs he allowed. O'Neill bounced back, throwing 3.2 scoreless innings after the third inning.
- O'Neill's fourth strikeout in the sixth inning of Game 1 was his 195th career strikeout, moving up to third with Jack Recco '77 on Bucknell's all-time strikeouts list. The Friday starter for the Bison leads the team with 43.1 innings pitched and had 38 strikeouts. He has a 3.03 ERA in his last five starts.
- Hadley Maxwell has a 3.44 ERA out of the bullpen. Maxwell was tagged for three earned runs in his outing in Game 2 at Army. The righty has been solid otherwise, with just seven earned runs allowed in 18.1 innings over 10 appearances.  Â
- Jonathan Adelmann threw 3.2 scoreless innings over the weekend. The righthander picked up his third save of the season in Game 1 at Holy Cross, stranding two runners to get the final out after O'Neill nearly went the distance. Adelmann then tossed 3.1 scoreless innings with four strikeouts to finish out Game 2 at Army.
- Adelmann has a 2.11 ERA in 21.1 innings out of the bullpen. In 11 appearances, opponents are hitting .218 against the sophomore. He has 28 strikeouts thus far with only eight walks and three hit-batters.
- Freshman Samuel Janik, who is a State College native (State College HS)Â picked up his first career win in Game 2 at Holy Cross. The righthander tossed 2.2 innings, allowing a run while striking out two batters. After allowing 10 earned runs in his first four appearances, Janik has been great, allowing just two earned runs over his last four appearances in 8.2 innings.Â
- Through 26 games, the Bison have a .248 team batting average and an 8.68 team ERA. Opponents are batting .309 and have a 5.99 ERA against BU.
- The Bison are 2-2 against ACC foes. Bucknell won its single game against Pitt, and took Game 2 from Virginia Tech in its opening series.
- Against Pitt, seven Bison pitchers combined for a four-hit, 17-strikeout effort. The 17 strikeouts were four shy of the team record of 21, set in 1956 against Franklin & Marshall (all by Don Richards) and in 1989 against Wilkes.Â
- Head coach Scott Heather is in his 13th season at the helm, passing Bill Lane (1946-57) as the third-longest tenured coach in program history. Heather's 234 career wins are second-most in team history, trailing only Hall-of-Famer Gene Depew (591).
- The Nittany Lions are 17-10 this season, including a 6-6 record in the Big Ten. They just got back from Ann Arbor, where they dropped 2 of 3 to Michigan. Penn State won the series opener on Friday 12-5 before the Wolverines bounced back with 8-7 and 6-5 wins.
- Earlier in league play, Penn State won 2 of 3 against Indiana and Northwestern and dropped 2 of 3 to Michigan State.
- Penn State has a .282 team batting average and has hit 44 home runs, 55 doubles, and eight triples in 27 games. The Nittany Lions have scored 10 or more runs 15 times this season, fourth-most in Division I baseball. Seven Nittany Lions have four or more homers, led by Paxton Kling with 10. Kling is slashing .345/.415/.672 for a 1.087 OPS. Jack Porter has a 1.022 OPS with five home runs.
- The Nittany Lions also like to run. They lead the Big Ten and rank 23rd nationally in stolen bases with 66 in 74 attempts. Ryan Weingartner is 19-for-19.
- The Penn State pitching staff has a 6.14 team ERA and a .278 opponent batting average. Weekend starter Ryan DeSanto is 5-1 with a 4.02 ERA. The top bullpen arms are Anthony Steele (2.37) and Matthew VanOstenbridge (3.66). Â
- Bucknell and Penn State first met in 1886 – Bucknell's very first varsity game was a 10-0 loss to State College on May 12, 1886 -- and the Nittany Lions have a 124-36 record in the all-time series.
- The Bison have won the last two meetings, however. They captured a wild 17-14 decision in 2023 after winning 8-7 in 2022. In the 2023 game in State College, Sean Keys hit a tie-breaking three-run homer in the top of the ninth. Keys and Grant Voytovich both went deep and drove in six runs in the game, and the top four in the lineup (Anthony Sherwin, Jacob Corson, Voytovich, Keys) went 14-for-20 with 14 RBIs and 13 runs scored.
- Tyler Dunn is the only current Bucknell position player who has ever faced Penn State. In two career games against the Nittany Lions, he is 3-for-7 with three RBIs.
- Two active Bison pitchers have taken the mound against Penn State. Brady Swenson started the 2022 game and allowed three earned runs in 4.0 innings. Hadley Maxwell tossed three innings in relief in the 2023 meeting and was charged with one earned run (three total).
- The Penn State game will be Bucknell's 15th straight road game and the 24th away contest in 27 games this season. The Bison finally get a long homestand with their next nine games at Depew Field. Four of those home games are on tap this weekend, with Lehigh and Lafayette coming in for doubleheaders on Saturday and Sunday.
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