Defensive woes plagued Penn State Tuesday night at PNC Park where Pitt won decisively 15-1 after seven innings, something coach Mike Gambino wasnโt too fond of.
Gambino reflected on the first of three five-run innings for Pitt in the second inning that began when Pitt third baseman Ryan Zuckerman hit a liner that was misplaced by Penn State center fielder Paxton Kling that allowed Zuckerman to advance to third.
โIf you look at that,โ Gambino said, “you keep the ball in front of us in the outfield and turn a double play and you probably get in there with maybe one run.โ
Gambino felt starting pitcher Mason Horwat, who went two plus innings charged with three earned runs, didnโt have support behind him.ย โWe didn’t execute great defensively behind him,โ Gambino said. โThe other mistakes that just seemed like Pitt was able to really key on a lot of where his pitches were going.โ
The bright spot for Penn State came from shortstop Ryan Weingartner, who set a school record with his 28th stolen base of the season in the first inning.
Later, Weingartner connected on his 10th home run of the season, providing Penn State their only offense against Pitt. Weingartner became the fifth Penn State player of the season joining centerfielder Paxton Kling, left fielder Jesse Jaconski, third basemen Bryce Molinaro, and infielder/outfielder Jack Porter to reach the mark, most by a Penn State club since 1999.ย
โYeah, you want our offense in general to be able to score in multiple ways. Like, I talked about it, we want to be really, really good on the bases, not just stealing bases,โ Gambino said.
โWe want to be able to hit home runs. We want to be a team that can score in different types of conditionsโฆand he’s a big part of that when you have a guy (Weingartner) that can go up top and set a school record in the same game. It’s pretty fun.โ
One of the things that bothered Gambino was defensively mistakes but also on the base paths with mental mistakes. In the sixth inning, when catcher Matt Maloney lined out to shortstop, Jaconski had been aggressive on the paths leading to the easy flip to second for an inning ending double play, something Gambino said that โdrives him nuts.โย
I then approached Gambino with a reflective question. As Penn State’s finishes its season with a final series against Xavier and has a Big Ten Tournament ahead, considering that Penn State had a .500 or better conference record in consecutive seasons for just the sixth time and in the Top 4 in the Big Ten in numerous offensive statistics, I asked where he feels his club is at the moment.
โWhere I am right now with this club. I don’t want to be know, putting a bow on a season at this point. We want to be a program as a chance to go to regional every year. It looks like from an RPI standpoint, our path to regionals is winning the Big Ten championship. We were close last year. So I think we’re making strides. I think we’re building, but right now that isย my thought process.โ
