ANN ARBOR, Mich. (May 23, 2004) Sophomore Aaron Greenfield (Villanova, Pa.) plated two runs with a single in the fourth inning to help the Penn State baseball team earn a doubleheader split at Michigan with a 5-2 victory in a rain/lightning-shortened Game 2 Sunday at Ray Fisher Stadium. The Nittany Lions snapped a season-high five-game losing streak and salvaged the final game of the series after dropping the first three games against the Wolverines, including a 5-1 setback in Sunday¡¯s Game 1. Penn State wrapped up its regular season with a 28-27 overall mark and 17-15 in the Big Ten. The Nittany Lions took the No. 6 seed in the upcoming Big Ten Tournament, which will be held May 26-30 at Siebert Field on the campus of Minnesota. The Golden Gophers are the No. 1 seed in the tournament and will receive a first round bye along with No. 2 Ohio State. Penn State will meet the Wolverines, who earned the conference¡¯s No. 3 seed, in the second game of the tournament at 3:35 p.m. Wednesday. No. 4 Michigan State and No. 5 Purdue will kick off the tournament with a 12:05 p.m. contest on Wednesday. All of Penn State¡¯s games will be carried live on ESPN Radio WMAJ 1450 AM and a link to the broadcast can be found at www.GoPSUsports.com. Greenfield, who was 2-for-3 in the second game, hit a single through the right side in the fourth inning with junior Clint Eury (Butler, Pa.) on third base and senior Matt Harter (Centre Hall, Pa.) on second base. Eury scored easily and Harter stopped at third base on the play, but Greenfield continued on his way to second base. He got caught in a rundown in which Harter was able to break for home plate and score. Greenfield got back to first base safely. The two runs gave Penn State a 3-1 lead after Michigan had come back to tie the score at 1-1 in the previous half inning. Junior Michael Milliron (DuBois, Pa.) scored on a wild pitch in the fifth inning and freshman Travis Laird (Conneaut Lake, Pa.) scored from second base on a failed pickoff attempt by Michigan reliever Ali Husain to make the game 5-1 Penn State. The Wolverines had the bases loaded with just one out in the seventh inning, but could just muster one run on a sacrifice fly by A.J. Scheidt to pull within 5-2. Reliever Craig Clark (Phoenixville, Pa.) got out of the jam without any further damage. Penn State had a runner on first base and two outs in the top of the eighth inning when lightning forced the game to be delayed. The umpires waited 52 minutes before calling the game. Clark picked up his first career victory by giving up just one run on four hits, while striking out three in relief of senior Jared Hopewell (Watsontown, Pa.). Hopewell fell just shy of the required five innings for the victory. He gave up just one run on five hits and struck out three over 4.2 innings. Milliron, who had two hits and scored twice, tripled and scored on a groundout by sophomore Scott Gummo (Tyrone, Pa.) to give the Nittany Lions a 1-0 lead in the first inning. Gummo got the scoring started in the first inning of Game 1 as well with a two-out solo home run into the wind in left field. It was his seventh homer of the year and first since April 17th at Minnesota. Penn State took its 1-0 lead into the second inning when senior starter Jim Farrell (Harleysville, Pa.) got a groundout to start the inning. But he then gave up a single to A.J. Scheidt and the rains came, forcing a 54 minute rain delay. Farrell returned after the delay, but wasn¡¯t as sharp as Scheidt stole second base and scored on a single by Jeff Kunkel to make it 1-1. Matt Butler added a two-run single later in the inning to give the Wolverines a 3-1 lead. Farrell was relieved by junior Josh Palm (Conneaut Lake, Pa.) to start the third inning. Palm pitched a scoreless third and fourth inning, but the Wolverines manufactured two more runs with two outs in the fifth inning. Eric Rose led off with a bunt single and was sacrificed over to second base. Kyle Bohm brought him around with a two-out single. Bohm then moved up to second base on a wild pitch and then scored on another two-out single by Brandon Roberts to make it 5-1 Michigan. The Nittany Lions got their first two batters, junior Clint Eury (Butler, Pa.) and senior Matt Harter (Centre Hall, Pa.), on base with a pair of singles to start the fifth inning, but both were stranded at third base and second base, respectively. Freshman Travis Laird (Conneaut Lake, Pa.) led off the sixth inning with a double to right-center field, but never got any further than third base. Penn State also had the bases loaded with one out in the seventh inning, but couldn¡¯t capitalize. Michael Penn picked up the win for Michigan by giving up just the one run and scattering seven hits in a seven-inning complete game. For more information on Penn State baseball, please visit the official athletic website at www.GoPSUsports.com. Game 1 Boxscore Game 2 Boxscore
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