Brenczewski drives in 7 on 4 hits as Hoosiers win rubber match over Penn State
By Carl James @jovian34 April 14th, 2024
Penn State jumped out to the lead when lead off hitter Joe Jaconski took Indiana starter Ty Rybarczyk deep for a solo homer run to open the game. Rybarczyk showed his veteran poise and sat down the next three batters he faced. Penn State starter Frankie Sanchez was coming off a career outing a week ago to complete a sweep of Northwestern. He went six innings throwing only 62 pitches and holding the Wildcats to only 1 run. Sanchez showed that efficiency in the first inning, setting down the Hoosiers 1-2-3 on only 9 pitches.
Indiana Hoosiers 12, Penn State Nittany Lions 3:
Inning by inning details in the Live Game Blog | Box Score
Sanchez’ fastball was only in the high 80’s. After the game head coach Mercer told the media, “I asked the guys to step forward in the box. Heavy mix guy, change-up was good. Slider was one of those where he sweeps it and it lands on the outside corner to the righties.”
Sanchez would not get a repeat of his performance last week. He gave three free passes to load the bases. This prompted a mound visit from the dugout. The next pitch was hammered high to centerfield for a grand slam off the bat of Joey Brenczewski.
Brenczewski would go on to have a ridiculous day. He went 4 for 5 driving in 7 runs. Every hit had an RBI and the switch hitter had two hits from each side of the plate. Brenczewski reflected that earlier in the series hew “was under the ball a lot” and by getting on top of it he was able to take advantage of the wind blowing out and get several hits.
Rybarczyk pitched a solid 4 inning open. He allowed just two hits, both solo home runs, and allowed no free passes. Over 71% of his pitches were strikes. He struck out 5 Penn State batters
Grant Holderfield was first out of the bullpen. Holderfield had a very fastball heavy mix, but was just missing the zone and loaded the bases with two outs in the fifth inning. Aydan Decker-Petty came in and needed just one pitch to end the inning with a groundout.
Decker-Petty was electric the rest of the game. He had a mid 90’s fastball and as he described after the game, “just getting that slider and putting them away when they are down 0-2.”
All position player starters but one got a hit, and five in addition to Brenczewski, had a two-hit day. Every one of Penn State’s five pitchers on the day allowed multiple hits and at least one earned run.
With the win, Indiana improves to 5-4 in conference play, in 6th place in the B1G standings. It was the 20th win overall for the Hoosiers and the 200th win for the Hoosiers at Bart Kaufman Field. Indiana welcomes Evansville on Tuesday at 6pm for a non-conference midweek game.