PLYMOUTH MEETING, Pa. (May 12, 2004) The Penn State baseball couldn¡¯t get a clutch hit and Villanova¡¯s Brian Trotta drove in three runs to hand the Nittany Lions a 5-2 loss Wednesday at Villanova Ballpark at Plymouth.

Penn State stranded 13 runners, including three in the ninth inning, in the loss. Freshman Jim Leitgeb (Elkton, Md.) had a career high three hits in the game.

The Nittany Lions will play their final four regular-season home games of 2004 when they play host to Michigan State Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Beaver Field. Friday¡¯s contest will start at 2 p.m. Admission is free.

All four games of the series will be carried live on ESPN Radio WMAJ 1450 AM and a link to the broadcasts can be found at www.GoPSUsports.com.

The Nittany Lions loaded the bases in the fourth inning on a walk and two Villanova errors and then had runners on second and third with one out in the fifth inning, but couldn¡¯t capitalize.

Another error allowed Penn State to break through in the sixth inning. Freshman Travis Laird (Conneaut Lake, Pa.) and sophomore Colin Runt (State College, Pa.) had back-to-back two-out singles before Leitgeb hit a grounder to shortstop that Brian Trotta couldn¡¯t handle, allowing Laird to score to make it 1-0.

But the Wildcats bounced right back with three runs in the bottom half of the sixth inning by taking advantage of a fielding error by shortstop Michael Milliron (DuBois, Pa.). Angelo Petracca and Danny Poydenis had back-to-back singles off starter Jared Hopewell (Watsontown, Pa.) to start the inning. They were sacrificed up a base by Brian Newbold. Hopewell got Adrian Schau to fly out to right field to make it runners on second and third base with two outs. Alan Day grounded to short, but the ball got by Milliron, allowing Petracca to score. Trotta got redemption from his costly error by hitting a two-run triple into the right-centerfield gap to make it 3-1 Villanova.

The Nittany Lions had runners on first and third with nobody out in the eighth inning, but couldn¡¯t bring them around.

The Wildcats put two more on the board after reliever Matt Carroll (Philadelphia, Pa.) ran into trouble in the eighth inning. Carroll gave up a one-out single to Newbold and a one-out single to Schau to get things started. Newbold scored on a passed ball, while Schau moved over to third. Schau scored on a suicide squeeze by Trotta to make it 5-1.

Penn State added a run in the ninth on an RBI single by Milliron, but Schau got a pop-up and a strikeout to end the Nittany Lions¡¯ threat.

For more information on Penn State baseball, please visit the official athletic website at www.GoPSUsports.com.

 123 456 789 R H E Penn State 000 001 001 2 7 1 Villanova 000 003 02X 5 10 4 Pitchers: Penn State Hopewell; Carroll (6). Villanova Mulvey; Ciccotelli (8); Schau (9). Win: Mulvey (5-4). Loss: Hopewell (1-3). Time: 2:43. Attendance: 330.