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ANN ARBOR, Mich.; May 24, 2007 ¨C Penn State scored five unanswered runs after falling behind to Iowa 3-0 and Craig Clark (Phoenixville, Pa.) and Drew O¡¯Neil (Roswell, Ga.) kept the Hawkeyes without any earned runs after the first inning and off the scoreboard entirely after the fourth as the Nittany Lions stayed alive in the Big Ten Tournament with a 5-3 win over Iowa in the first elimination game of the tournament early Thursday afternoon. Penn State improves to 29-25 overall with the win and will next play at 12:05 p.m. on Friday afternoon against either Michigan, Ohio State or Minnesota depending on the results of today¡¯s final two games.

Clark turned in another solid performance in his first career Big Ten Tournament start, going seven innings and allowing nine hits but only two earned runs, three runs overall. For the third time this year, he did not walk a batter while he also struck out three. He battled back after giving up a two-run homer to the second hitter of the game and worked out of some jams in the middle innings before retiring the final seven hitters he faced. O¡¯Neil came on and worked perfect eighth and ninth innings for his 11th save of the year. Combined, Clark and O¡¯Neil retired the last 13 hitters of the game and 16 of the last 17 Iowa hitters to end the contest.

The win also avenges two previous losses to Iowa this year. Penn State dropped two out of three to the Hawkeyes back during the first weekend of April in frigid temperatures in Iowa City, including a 1-0 loss in Clark's start. The fourth game of that series was cancelled. The win is also Penn State's first in the Big Ten Tournament since the 2003 season, when the team went 3-2 in the tournament. The Lions' last win at the Big Ten Tournament was against Michigan on May 24, 2003 in Minneapolis, Minn.

Matt Cavagnaro, who went 3-for-5 in the win over Iowa, crossed third base before scoring the go-ahead run in the seventh inning of Penn State's 5-3 victory. (Amir Gamza - Wolverine Photo)

The Hawkeyes jumped on the scoreboard right away in the first inning as leadoff hitter Jason White reached on a bunt single and then Travis Sweet followed with a two-run home run well over the wall in left field for 2-0 Iowa lead. Although they would get seven more hits over the next four innings, the Hawkeyes were only able to score on more unearned run the rest of the game.

That run came in the top of the fourth as Iowa took advantage of a Penn State error to make it 3-0. With two out and runners on first and second, Justin Toole lifted a fall ball into short right field that kept being pushed in by the breeze blowing in and an oncoming Rick Marlin (Orlando, Fla.) had the ball go off of his glove, allowing a run to score before Clark struck out White looking to end the inning on the eighth pitch of the at bat.

After Iowa starter Nick Erdman needed just 25 pitches to retire the side over the first three innings, he seemed to lose control in the fourth and within roughly five minutes, Penn State had tied the score 3-3. Erdman issued back-to-back walks to Rob Yodice (Staten Island, N.Y.) and Joe Blackburn (Sinking Spring, Pa.) on eight straight pitches to start the inning. Both then scored on Cory Wine¡¯s (Stillwater, Okla.) third triple of the year to left center that got over center fielder Sweet¡¯s head. Wine then trotted home on Mike Deese¡¯s (Roswell, Ga.) RBI groundout to tie the score.

Clark and Erdman put up zeros on the scoreboard for two more innings and Clark also kept the Hawkeyes off the scoreboard again in the seventh, going over the 100-pitch mark in the process. The Nittany Lions then got to Erdman again in the seventh inning, putting together a string of three straight singles and a sacrifice fly to take a 5-3 lead. Matt Cavagnaro (Brightwaters, N.Y) led off with a single up the middle. Scott Gaffney (Westbury, N.Y.), who laid down his Big Ten-leading 16th sacrifice bunt of the year in the first inning, attempted to lay down another one but ended up beating it out at first for a single. Yodice then lined a 2-1 pitch from Erdman into left center field for an RBI single that made it 4-3 and sent Gaffney to third and then Gaffney easily came home on Blackburn¡¯s sacrifice fly for the second run of the inning.

Scott Gaffney hits home plate with the fifth and final Penn State run of the game after scoring on a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the seventh inning.(Amir Gamza - Wolverine Photo)

The Nittany Lions will now wait until after today¡¯s game have been completed to find out who they will face just after noon tomorrow. If Michigan defeats Ohio State at 7:05 p.m. tonight, then the Nittany Lions will face the Buckeyes once again for the sixth time in eight days. If Ohio State wins, then the Nittany Lions will either face Michigan or Minnesota, depending on what the Golden Gophers do against Illinois in the previous game. If Minnesota and Michigan both lose, then Penn State would face Minnesota. If Penn State wins the first game tomorrow, it would play again at 3:35 p.m. Check back to GoPSUsports.com later this evening for a complete preview of tomorrow¡¯s game(s).

Notes: Penn State¡¯s 29 wins this year are the most under head coach Robbie Wine and the most for a Nittany Lion squad since 2003, when the team finished 29-28¡­.Tomorrow, the Nittany Lions will try to win 30 games for the first time since 2000, when they went 45-19¡­.Clark recorded his ninth pickoff of the year, tops in the Big Ten by four¡­.Clark¡¯s three strikeouts give him 230 for his career, just five shy of moving into fourth place on the Penn State career strikeout list past Pete Yodis (1998-01), who is currently fourth with 234¡­.Clark also tied Dan Goebler (1997-00) for fourth place in career starts with his 41st¡­.Cavagnaro now has 168 assists this season, 21 shy of breaking the school for assists in a season¡­.O¡¯Neil tied Shawn Fagan for second place on the career saves list with his 11th. The career record is 15¡­.Cory Wine tied his career high with 17 putouts in the game, extending his single season record to 484. With just five more putouts tomorrow, he will move into fourth place on the career putouts list at Penn State. The career putout record is 1193.

Pitcher Craig Clark quotes

On his performance this afternoon
"It went well I think. Our team got some offense there, went ahead and then once (closer) Drew O'Neil was in the game we knew it was over. We get a lead in the eighth and the ninth, then we bring him in and we're good to go.

"As far as my start went, I was hitting most of my spots. I made that mistake that (Iowa's Travis Sweet) hit over the wall in the first inning. I left it over the plate and, of course, he's going to hit it. They're a really good team offensively, defensively and on the mound. If you make pitching mistakes they're going to hit them."

On the change he felt after Penn State tied the game 3-3 in the fourth inning
"It was huge. Once we got those runs it helped me a lot. I was ready to go because I knew we were back in the game -- it's a brand new game. From then on I felt more of an attitude and an excitement in the dugout. It goes from there and we did well."

On if he feels Penn State is prepared to make a run the next few days
"I think so. We have the offensive power that we can do it. We have some guys on the mound who can go out there and give us five or six innings. Then we can use our bullpen. Our bullpen is really good. We have confidence in them and everyone is working as a team, so we're ready to go."

Head Coach Robbie Wine quotes

On the game
"We hit the ball pretty well. I thought we were putting the bat on the ball pretty well. It was right at them. It was a matter of staying within yourself and not trying to do too much like what happened yesterday. It was a relaxed atmosphere. The guys were themselves in the dugout. We were confident that we would at least make a run at it. Craig Clark did a good job, especially working through the fifth, sixth and seventh innings -- gutting it out. We're in good shape. If you had a script that's kind of how you would write it. I think we got our offense going a little bit. We're feeling good about that again. This is the start of hopefully a roll."

On the overall offensive performance from the lineup today
"I like Robert Yodice in the three hole and I like Cory Wine in the five hole, he seems to be swinging the bat a little bit better now. Joe Blackburn is going to come around. You watch he's going to get a couple key clutch hits here tomorrow or the next day. Matt Cavanaro just looks determined out there. He's locked in and determined to take this season on as long as it's supposed to go."