State College, Pa., May 18, 2002 - The Penn State baseball team saw its postseason chances slip away on Saturday as it was shutout in back-to-back games in losing both ends of a doubleheader with Michigan State. The Spartans, who out-scored the Lions by a combined score 30-0 over the two games, defeated Penn State 16-0 in the opener before posting a 14-0 victory in the nightcap.

The pair of losses end any shot Penn State had of qualifying for the 2002 Big Ten Tournament. The Nittany Lions’ absence from the conference championship will mark the third time they haven’t advanced to the conference tourney since 1997 (top six teams earn berth to Big Ten Tournament).

With the losses Penn State drops to 23-29 overall and 11-18 in Big Ten games. Michigan State improves to 35-17 overall and 15-12 in league action.

Michigan State used six-run outbursts in the second and fifth innings as it cruised to a 16-0 win in game one. The Spartans opened a 6-0 lead in the top of the second in a rally that was fueled by a costly Nittany Lion error. After Scott Koerber gave Michigan a 1-0 lead with an RBI single up the middle, Penn State shortstop Willie Melendez (Cayey, Puerto Rico) made an errant toss in an attempt to start a double play, which allowed two runs to score. Bob Malek and Chris McCuiston each added an RBI single to round out the frame’s scoring.

Jared Koutnik smashed a solo home run in the fourth and McCuiston added a run-scoring fielder’s choice to increase the advantage to 8-0.

James Moreno keyed a six-run fifth with a three-run shot to left field to put the game out of reach.

The final 16-0 margin marked the Nittany Lions’ largest in a loss since an 18-1 setback vs. Texas A&M in 1997 and their largest in a shutout loss since falling 14-0 at Auburn in 1995.

Starter Clayton Hamilton (2-8) (Beaver Falls, Pa.) took the loss for Penn State after allowing eight runs, only three of which were earned, 10 hits and four walks over four innings. Tim Day (10-3) earned the win for Michigan State while tossing seven shutout innings while scattering seven hits.

Michigan State wasted no time in grabbing control of game two as it used a two-RBI single by Kyle Geswein to grab a 2-0 lead in the top of the first.

Travis Gulick ripped his second grand slam of the series in the top of the third to spark a five-run fifth that increased the Spartans’ lead to 8-0.

Michigan State added a single tally in the fourth and a five-spot in the sixth to account for the final 14-0 margin.

Aaron Tressler (4-4) (State College, Pa.) was tagged with the loss in game two after getting touched up for 12 runs and nine hits over 5.1 innings. Jon Huizinga limited Penn State to five hits over five scoreless innings to pick up the win.

Penn State will host Michigan State in the final game of the regular season on Sunday, May 18 beginning at 1:00 p.m. (ET).