University Park, Pa.; May 12, 2006 - Penn State was held to just four hits by two Michigan pitchers and the Wolverines gradually scored seven runs en route to a 7-0 win in the Big Ten series opener on Friday afternoon. The game was the first of the final series at Beaver Field.

Michigan starter Paul Hammond pitched seven and two-thirds scoreless innings to pick up the win for the Wolverines. He walked four and hit a batter and did not strike out anyone but allowed just four hits and also induced a pair of double plays in keeping Penn State off the scoreboard.

The Wolverines took a 1-0 lead off PSU starter Alan Stidfole in the first inning as Zach Putnam drove home Leif Mahler with a two-out single. Stidfole escaped further damage and stranded two baserunners by getting a groundout to end the inning. He also got double play balls in the second and third inning to escape damage, however Michigan scored two more runs to take a 3-0 lead in the third before Stidfole induced the second double play of the day for the Nittany Lions. Mahler, who went 3-for-3, doubled home the first run and he later scored the second run on Doug Pickens' single.

The Wolverines added two more in the fifth on a two-out, two-run double by Putnam. They did their final scoring in the seventh as a Jeff Kunkel one-out single plated the final two Michigan runs of the day. He was the final batter that Stidfole faced as he was pulled after Kunkel's single and Gary Amato came on and induced the third double play of the game for Penn State to end the inning. Amato pitched a perfect eighth inning in relief and Aaron Markowitz came on and pitched the ninth without allowing any runs as well.

Penn State put two baserunners on in the second, fifth, and eighth innings, but in all three instances, the baserunners came when there were already two outs and Hammond was able to get the final outs each time. Hammond walked four batters and hit a man in the first five innings but did not allow any of the baserunners to get past second. Penn State's only baserunner to get past second came in the eighth inning. Hammond had a no-hitter through five innings but it was broken up by Lance Thompson's leadoff double in the sixth, which he blooped into right field just out of the reach of a diving Mike Schmidt in right. Penn State also put its leadoff man on in the seventh inning but in both the sixth and seventh, Hammond induced double plays, one on a line shot to second by Jim Leitgeb in the sixth. The Lions' best chance to score was in the eighth when both Cavagnaro and Thompson singled with two outs, ending Hammond's day. Reliever Michael Powers came on and committed a balk, allowing the runners to move up to second and third, but then got Scott Gummo to ground out to end the inning.

Stidfole fell to 3-4 with the loss while Hammond improved to 6-3 with the win. Thompson went 2-for-4 at the plate for Penn State and is now just four hits shy of moving into fifth place on the Penn State career hit list. Gummo drew a walk in the fourth inning to extend his consecutive reaching base streak to 24 games.

The teams will continue the final-ever series at Beaver Field with a doubleheader tomorrow beginning at 1:00 p.m.