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Penn State Hands Virginia its First Loss, 7-6 in 10 Innings
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Feb. 25, 2001
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The University of Virginia baseball team suffered its first loss of the 2001 season after dropping a 7-6 decision in 10 innings to the Penn State Nittany Lions at the UVa Baseball Field. After UVa built a 6-2 lead through seven innings of play, Penn State scored four runs in the top of the eighth inning to tie the score at 6-6. In the top of the tenth inning, PSU’s Mike DeRenzo posted the game-winning hit when he recorded an RBI-double to score Adam Warchal.
Penn State jumped on the scoreboard first and pulled out to an early 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning. After the Nittany Lions’ Zach Smithlin singled, Chris Wright hit a two-run homerun to left-center field, giving PSU a 2-0 lead. Virginia came right back and scored two runs of its own to knot the score at 2-2 when Mark Rueffert (1-4, 2 RBI) singled to right field and scored Joseph Koshansky and Hunter Wyant (2-5, RBI, run).
The Cavaliers took their first lead of the game at 4-2 when Jon Benick (1-4, 2 RBI, run) hit an RBI-single to right field that scored David Stone (1-3, RBI) and Wyant in the bottom of the second inning. Virginia extended its lead to 6-2 in the bottom of the sixth inning on RBI’s by Stone and Wyant. Stone hit a sacrifice fly to score Chris Sweet (2-4, 2 runs) and Benick scored on Wyant’s double to give the Cavaliers a four run lead.
It appeared Virginia was going to sweep the three-game series from Penn State, but the Nittany Lions rallied to score four unanswered runs in the top of the eighth inning. PSU’s Brian Bishop singled down the left field line to score Matt Lindert to tie the score at 6-6. Lindert’s game-tying run eventually sent the contest into extra innings before DeRenzo’s game-winning double scored Warchal to give Penn State the 7-6 victory.
PSU’s Aaron Tressler gathered his first win of the season after pitching 4.1 innings and allowing zero runs and three hits to go along with five strikeouts. UVa’s Alan Zimmerer (0-1) pitched 2.0 innings and allowed one run on three hits in the defeat.
With the loss, Virginia’s record falls to 5-1 overall, while the victory improves Penn State’s record to 2-5 on the season. The Cavaliers will return to action on Tuesday, February 27th when UVa hosts the William & Mary Tribe. The game is scheduled to begin at 2:30 p.m. and will be played at the UVa Baseball Field.
Game Scoring 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 R H EPenn State - 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 1 7 12 2Virginia - 2 2 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 6 11 2
WP- Tressler (1-0)LP- Zimmerer (0-1)Save- None.2B: UVa 4 – Wyant (2), Sweet (2). PSU 2 – DeRenzo, Smithlin.3B: None.HR: PSU 1 – C. Wright.LOB: UVa 9, PSU 9.DP: PSU 2, UVa 1.SF: UVa 1 – Stone. PSU 1 – Harter.SH: PSU 2 – D. Wright, Melendez. UVa 1 – Stone.SB: UVa 2 – Wyant, Sweet.CS: UVa 1 – Christensen.E: UVa 2 – Benick, Christensen. PSU 2 0 D. Wright, Melendez.Attendance: 72.