Penn State baseball week in review: Nittany Lions fall to Pittsburgh, take one of three from Michigan

The Penn State Nittany Lions had their worst week of the season last week, going 1-3 with two losses to Michigan, one loss to Pittsburgh, and one win over Michigan. Here are the biggest storylines from last week.

Punch outs were evasive for starting rotation

The Nittany Lion starting rotation struggled as a whole this weekend, allowing 16 earned runs in 11.1 innings. Strikeouts were hard for them to come by as well. The lone punch out by a Penn State starting pitcher last weekend was by left-handed pitcher Logan Olson in the bottom of the second inning of the 6-5 loss on Sunday.

The fielding skills were put to good use for the Nittany Lion defense last weekend with 37 putouts, making up for the issues with pitching. Penn State also had zero errors in the series against Michigan.

Late-game offense stumbled in final two games

In each of the final two games of the series against Michigan last weekend, the Penn State bats could not find their groove in the late stages. On Saturday, the Nittany Lions nearly came back down 8-2 with four runs in the fifth, but they only managed to score one run after that and went down in order in the top of the ninth to lose by a score of 8-7.

On Sunday, the Penn State bats put up two runs in the first inning and three in the third as the lone sources of offense in the 6-5 loss. After leading 5-0 in the top of the third inning, the Nittany Lions allowed five runs in the bottom half of the inning and allowed the go-ahead run via an RBI double by Jonathan Kim.

Voss struggled in battle with his old school

Junior catcher Nate Voss played two games against his former team, the Michigan Wolverines, last weekend, going 1-for-8 and getting struck out four times. Voss played his freshman season at Michigan, recording two hits in 10 at-bats before transferring to John A. Logan College for his sophomore year.

Statistical feats for the Nittany Lions

The Nittany Lions have had lots of success at the plate and on the basepath this season as the only team at the Division I level with over 40 home runs and over 60 stolen bases. Penn State also has four players with five or more home runs and stolen bases this season, which include Paxton Kling, Ryan Weingartner, Jack Porter, and Joe Jaconski.