Revenge is a dish best served cold.
Indiana’s Pauly Milto took that phrase rather seriously on Saturday afternoon. The sophomore pitcher was downright chilly from the mound, throwing six shutout innings with seven strikeouts for the Hoosiers as they defeated Penn State 5-2.
It was a little payback for the upset loss to the Nittany Lions on Friday night.
Indiana finally started to get more aggressive offensively in the 4th inning Saturday behind the quick feet of first baseman Matt Gorski. After Logan Sowers’ sacrifice fly scored Luke Miller, Gorski reached on with a bunt single. He proceeded to steal second and was brought home by Jake Matheny’s single to left. It gave the Hoosiers an early 2-0 lead.
That breakthrough inning opened the gates for Indiana to extend the lead as they struck again in the 5th. Alex Krupa hit a solo home run to bolster the lead to 3-0 while Milto was still dealing on the mound.
And when Milto needed a little help, the Hoosiers’ defense stepped up. In the 6th, with one out and the bases loaded in Penn State’s favor, Jeremy Houston, Tony Butler and Gorski completed a 6-4-3 double play to save Milto’s scoreless line.
The Nittany Lions scored one in the 7th on Conlin Hughes’ single off of B.J. Sabol that scored Brett Davis but Indiana took little time to respond. In the same inning, Matt Lloyd’s single to left center scored Houston and Krupa and squashed Penn State’s hopes of a comeback as they held the 5-1 lead.
Penn State managed to gain back another run against Sabol in the 8th when Ryan Sloniger scored off of a throwing error by Miller but it was relatively smooth sailing from there for the Hoosiers as Lloyd closed out the game on the mound to secure the 5-2 victory.
Indiana (28-19-2, 11-8-1) will look to win the series against Penn State (16-34, 3-17) on Sunday at 12:05 p.m. at Bart Kaufman Field.