State College, Pa., May 19, 2002 - Michigan State continued its dominance of the Nittany Lions Sunday afternoon at Beaver Field as the Spartans posted 16 runs on 17 hits to complete the four-game sweep of the Nittany Lions with an 16-3 victory. The double-digit output in the runs column capped off an impressive weekend for the Michigan State offense as it outscored Penn State 62-10 during the series.

Penn State closes out the 2002 season 23-30 overall with the loss. The 30 losses mark the most in a single season in the history of the Penn State baseball program.

Michigan State wasted no time in getting on the board as the Spartans took advantage of a wild pitch by Nittany Lion hurler Josh Palm (Conneaut Lake, Pa.) in the top half of the first, to take a 1-0 lead early on.

After getting shutout by a 30-0 margin in Saturday’s twin bill with the Spartans, Penn State scored its first run in 14 innings when Chris Wright (State College, Pa.) picked an RBI when brought in Mike DeRenzo (Murrysville, Pa.), who singled to start the inning, with a sac fly to center to knot the game at one.

The Spartans took a 6-1 advantage in the second after Charlie Braun delivered a two-run single to the left center field gap. Chris McCuiston had the big hit of the inning for Michigan State as he drilled his 15th homer of the season, a three-run shot to left to extend the Spartan lead to five runs.

The Nittany Lions took advantage of three Michigan State miscues to tack on its second run of the game. Wes Reohr (Mechanicsburg, Pa.) scored from first when Travis Gulick misplayed a fly ball in left off the bat of Adam Warchal (Nanticoke, Pa.) to cut the deficit to four runs after three innings of play.

Michigan State scored five runs on five hits in the top of the fourth that was highlighted by Travis Gulick’s three-run homer to left to extend the Spartans lead to 11-2.

Pinch hitter Jim Deliz added to the Spartans lead when knocked a Tyler Wingerd (Frederick, Md.) offering into left to score two more runs and make it 13-2 in favor of Michigan State. Kyle Geswein greeted Penn State reliever Jared Hopewell (Watsontown, Pa.) by depositing a two-out offering over the scoreboard in right to extend the Michigan State lead to 15-2.

Penn State tacked on its third run of the contest when freshman first baseman, Clint Eury (Butler, Pa.) drilled a run-scoring single into right that allowed Reohr to score from second.

The 15-3 margin is the closest Penn State would get as the Spartans pitching staff held the Nittany Lions scoreless over the final two innings to end the contest after the Spartans tacked on their 16th run of the game when Jim Deliz drilled his first homer of the season for the Spartans.

In the loss, Mike DeRenzo and Wes Reohr each collected a pair of hits for the Nittany Lions.

Penn State starter Josh Palm was hung with the loss for the Nittany Lions as he closes out his freshman campaign with a 2-5 mark. Michigan State’s Pat Gill improved to 6-3 in picking up the win for the Spartans.