Key takeaways from Penn State baseball's final fall scrimmage against Bucknell

The Penn State Nittany Lions ended their fall season with two wins out of three five-inning games (W 2-0, W 8-1, L 0-6) in a scrimmage against the Bucknell Bison last Saturday. Penn State had only three players play all three games (Jesse Jaconski, Cole Wagner, Jack Porter). Here are the key takeaways from Saturday's scrimmage:

The Nittany Lions are capable of building momentum

As was seen in Game 2, Penn State can put one foot in front of the other when it matters most, as they had three crooked-number innings. The Nittany Lions had four consecutive baserunners in the bottom of the first inning, with Paxton Kling, Ryan Weingartner, Joe Jaconski, and Bryce Molinaro leading the charge. With no home runs in the three games on Saturday, it showed that it takes one Penn State bat to ignite an offensive surge.

Molinaro continues to shine

Third baseman Bryce Molinaro has hit in all four games he has played in during the fall season, which included a 2-for-3 performance in Saturday's Game 2. He also drove in three runs and had a triple, showing off the much-needed speed boost that should carry over into the spring. As was shown in the spring of 2024, Molinaro has power, but he has the potential to become a well-rounded player and team leader this upcoming season.

A tale of two fourth-year pitchers

Left-hander Anthony Steele allowed two hits and showed his struggle while closing out Game 1. Despite having two strikeouts and the save, the senior pitcher now puts himself under further pressure to succeed in his last chance at Happy Valley. As for redshirt junior right-hander Chase Renner, he struck out two batters and walked only one, as his recovery from injury has been slow but promising.

Pitching staff is starting to form a cohesion

As was previously discussed, strikeouts have been few in far between for the Nittany Lions for the longest time. The Penn State pitching staff sat down 20 batters in 15 innings on Saturday, while allowing a surprisingly high 11 walks as well. Even with the small sample sizes for the pitchers, it seems like the good coaching has paid off in Happy Valley.