Penn State baseball will be back at PNC Park this season to take on in-state rival Pitt, the school announced via Twitter early Wednesday afternoon.
Our last game at PNC Park was a lot of fun!#WeAre https://t.co/I4x6RTBsOL pic.twitter.com/7YOlMRasSD
— Penn State Baseball (@PennStateBASE) February 22, 2023
The teams will play at the Home of the Pittsburgh Pirates Tuesday, May 16, with first pitch scheduled for 6.
It will be the fourth time the teams have played in the venue since 2017.
Penn State will also play Pitt March 28 in University Park. First pitch for that game is also scheduled for 6.
Last season, the teams met up in PNC Park in May, and Penn State was on the right side of what ended up being an eventful night.
Pitt entered the ninth inning with a 6-5 lead, and ended up losing 19-6. Penn State scored 14 runs in the top of the ninth, highlighted by a pair of three-run homers from Josh Spiegel and Kyle Hannon.
Spiegel (Penn Trafford High School) is one of three Penn State players from the Pittsburgh area, along with pitchers Steven Miller (North Hills) and Ryan Partridge (North Allegheny). Penn State’s best player from last season, Matt Wood, graduated from Pine-Richland High School in Gibsonia, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh. Wood is now in the Milwaukee Brewers organization, going in the fourth round of last year’s draft. Wood was the Big Ten’s batting champion last season and a first-team all-conference selection.
Despite losing Wood’s production, PSU is off to a promising start this season.
Although the team is 1-2 after three games, it got a big 9-5 win over No. 22 Miami in Friday’s its season opener.
PSU almost got a series win. But it fell 3-2 in Sunday’s finale. The team’s next game is against Maine in Cary, North Carolina. Penn State has awhile before opening Big Ten play. The team will take on Michigan on a three-game weekend set scheduled for March 24-26 in Ann Arbor.
