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James Franklin speaks with the Penn State baseball team prior to the Big Ten Tournament

By Nick Kreiser

CARY, NC - FEBRUARY 23: Penn State University baseball hat during a game between Wagner and Penn State at Coleman Field at USA Baseball National Training Complex on February 23, 2020 in Cary, North Carolina. (Photo by Andy Mead/ISI Photos/Getty Images)
CARY, NC - FEBRUARY 23: Penn State University baseball hat during a game between Wagner and Penn State at Coleman Field at USA Baseball National Training Complex on February 23, 2020 in Cary, North Carolina. (Photo by Andy Mead/ISI Photos/Getty Images) /
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The Penn State baseball team had their best season in a decade, qualifying for the Big Ten tournament for the first time since 2012, and James Franklin spoke with the team before they hit the road.

Penn State enters the tournament as the No. 6 seed out of eight total teams that qualified from the 13-team conference (Wisconsin does not have a baseball program), so they will be underdogs for much of this week, including in game one against Iowa.

The Nittany Lions and Hawkeyes did not meet on the diamond at all this season, but Iowa comes in as the No. 3 seed with a 33-17 overall record.

All that being said, if anyone knows a little something about shocking the world and making a run towards a conference title, it’s James Franklin.

In their second game of the tournament, Penn State will take on either the winner or loser – depending on the outcome of their own game – of Rutgers and Purdue. The Nittany Lions took two out of three from the Boilermakers in mid-April, but they lost two out of thee to the Scarlet Knights a few weeks prior.

As a team, Penn State is just 25-27 on the year (11-13 in conference play) but were sporting a winning record for a few weeks, prior to getting swept by Illinois to close out the season.

Their best win of the year came on the road against a top 25 team and the Big Ten regular season champ, Maryland. That was a 6-4 win in extra innings.

The Diamond Lions were led this season by junior catcher, Matt Wood.

The Nittany Lions’ catcher hit .395 on the season, which is among the top 20 batting averages in all of Division I baseball.

The Penn State baseball team certainly does not get the same notoriety as the football, wrestling, basketball, volleyball, and hockey programs do (understandably so), but perhaps a deep run in the conference tournament can be the building blocks for Coach Cooper to build a solid and steady program.

The Big Ten baseball tournament will take place at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, NE (also the home of the College World Series), and the Penn State Nittany Lions will take on the Iowa Hawkeyes at 10:00 AM ET on Wednesday, in the first round of the double elimination tournament.

The entire tournament will be broadcasted on the Big Ten Network.

Next. Post-spring reasons for optimism for Penn State Football. dark

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