MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. (May 21, 2003) - The No. 4 seed Penn State baseball team showed some nerves early in its first postseason appearance in two years.

But Junior Jim Farrell (Harleysville, Pa.) kept the Nittany Lions in the game until the offense awakened in the fifth inning and they went on to win 6-0 over No. 5 Northwestern in the opening round of the Big Ten Tournament Wednesday at Siebert Field.

Farrell and sophomore Clint Eury (Butler, Pa.) combined on the five-hit shutout, Penn State's first shutout in the tournament since it beat Illinois 6-0 on May 20, 2000.

Penn State (27-26, 18-15) will play either No. 2 Ohio State at 4:35 p.m. or No. 1 Minnesota at 8:05 p.m. Thursday. The game will be carried live by ESPN Radio WMAJ 1450 AM and a link to listen will be available at www.GoPSUsports.com.

The Nittany Lions finally broke through in a scoreless ballgame with two runs in the fifth inning. Penn State only had one hit and had stranded five runners entering the inning. But senior Zack Smithlin (Fair Lawn, N.J.) led off the inning with a drag bunt for a base hit and moved to second base on a sacrifice bunt by freshman Derrick Barr (Butler, Pa.). Senior Wes Reohr (Mechanicsburg, Pa.) plated Smithlin with an RBI double off the base of the left-centerfield wall and Reohr scored on an RBI single by Eury.

Farrell, an All-Big Ten Third Team selection, worked out of trouble in each of the first three innings to keep Penn State in the game. He had men on first and second in the first inning and got Jason Krynski to ground out to second baseman Mike DeRenzo (Murrysville, Pa.). The Wildcats loaded the bases in the second inning on a leadoff single by Dan Pohlman, a walk by Anthony Wycklendt and Brandon Ackley reached on a fielding error by third baseman Adam Warchal (Nanticoke, Pa.). Farrell then got Ken Padgett, Eric Roeder and Mark Ori to all strike out swinging to end the threat. He also stranded Wildcat runners in scoring position in the third, fifth and sixth innings before giving way to Eury, the team's closer, after walking the first batter in the seventh inning.

Farrell struck out seven, walked a season-high five and gave up just five hits over six-plus innings to improve to 7-3 on the season. Eury walked two and did not surrender a hit as he extended his scoreless innings streak to 17.0 innings in three innings of work for his fourth save. Eury's 0.38 ERA ranks best in Penn State's 128-year history for pitchers with at least 20.0 innings of work.

The Nittany Lions chased Northwestern starter Dan Konecny in the seventh inning on three straight singles and a walk to start the inning. Reohr, who was 3-for-4, and Eury hit back-to-back linedrive singles to leftfield and Warchal scored Reohr with a single up the middle. Sophomore Arin Gelletly (Clarksville, Md.), who entered to play first base when Eury relieved Farrell in the top half of the inning, then walked to load the bases. Chris Hayes relieved Konecny and walked junior Matt Harter (Centre Hall, Pa.) to score Eury and Warchal scored on a wild pitch to make it 5-0.

Penn State added an insurance run on a sacrifice fly by Warchal in the eighth inning.

Smithlin had three hits and scored twice, Eury had two hits and and Warchal drove in two runs in the game. Freshman Lance Thompson (Houtzdale, Pa.) extended his hitting streak to nine games.

Third-seeded Michigan and No. 6 Indiana are in progress at this time. If Michigan wins, the Nittany Lions will play Minnesota. If Indiana wins, Penn State will play Ohio State.

Quotes from the post-game press conference:

Head coach Joe Hindelang -

How much of a relief is it to win the first game?
"If you lose the first game, then you have to come back and win six. At this point we don't have to do that. So it is nice to win this one. If you lose this one, then you have to come back tomorrow and you could lose and go home before Minnesota plays a game. We did a wonderful job today. We got good pitching in clutch situations. Farrell and Eury both made the pitches and then we finally got some good scoring opportunities against an outstanding pitcher in Konecny."

"The players earned everything. I think the group of seniors and Jimmy (Farrell) know what it takes to get to regional play. They started the year with a purpose. We were eight games under .500 at one point, but we were playing good teams and guys hung in there."

Jim Farrell -

You struck out the side with the bases loaded in the second inning. Did that give you confidence? "I knew it was a big turning point in the game. It takes a little while for our bats to get started sometimes. If I put us in a hole by giving up a base hit or a sac fly or something, that gives the other team momentum. That run is big in the first round, especially in the first game. So I was just happy to get a strikeout. I made some big pitches in big situattions."

Is it comfortable to know that Eury is warming up down in the bullpen and he can come in and shut a team down?
"It's very nice. When I look down in the pen and I see Clint and our ace Clayton Hamilton (Beaver Falls, Pa.) down there, I have confidence in either one of them. I think both of them could have done the job. I'm glad Clint came in and did a good job against a tough lefty (in Gresky)."

Is this a case of winning without your best stuff?
"I think that I had all three of my pitches working for the first time. My split-finger worked throughout the game. Walks hurt me. I don't usually allow too many walks in a game, but I just couldn't find the zone a couple of times. I had to adjust to the umpire."