Penn State baseball's dazzling 2024 postseason, full of huge at-bats and plenty of runs, ended Sunday against the Big Ten's best pitching staff in the Big Ten Tournament final. Nebraska held the Nittany Lions to one run on four hits, then scored the game-winner in the ninth for a 2-1 victory in the Big Ten Tournament championship game.
With the victory, Nebraska claimed its first Big Ten Tournament title and earned the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Penn State, meanwhile, capped coach Mike Gambino's first season at 29-24 after exploding for a huge May run that lifted the team within one win of its first NCAA Tournament bid in 24 years.
Penn State and Nebraska were tied 1-1 in the ninth, when Nittany Lions reliever Jaden Henline got the first two outs of the inning. Then Ben Columbus singled and pinch runner Cayden Brumbaugh stole second to put the go-ahead run in scoring position. Henline worked a two-strike count to Gabe Swansen, who took a good pitch that shaved the outside corner.
The pitch was ruled a ball, and Swansen took advantage. He ripped a double to the gap in left-center, scoring Brumbaugh with the evantual game-winning run. Penn State's Adam Cecere, who had a huge tournament, ended the inning with a catch at the right-field wall to take away a potential two-run home run. Nebraska challenged the ruling, which was upheld, and the Nittany Lions limited the damage.
This is not the first highlight catch @AdamCecere has had against the OF wall this week. 😲#B1GBaseball x @PennStateBASE pic.twitter.com/LRmBU0pUVF
— Big Ten Baseball (@B1Gbaseball) May 26, 2024
However, Nebraska had Brett Sears, the Big Ten's pitcher of the year, available for the ninth inning. Sears, who led the conference in ERA (2.05) and WHIP (0.83) got the Nittany Lions in order to clinch the tournament title. And Penn State, which scored 24 runs in its first three tournament games, could not crack Sears or Nebraska starter Jackson Brockett. Penn State scored one run in the final, on a throwing error in the first inning, and had 13 consecutive batters retired at one point.
Even after its magnificent tournament run, Penn State faced an uphill climb in the final. The Nittany Lions have not beaten Nebraska, the tournament's No. 2 seed, since 2017 and had lost 11 straight to the Cornhuskers entering the title game. The teams did not play this season.
Their first meeting of 2024 came at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, about an hour drive from the University of Nebraska. The announced crowd of 13,330 wore mostly red. Further, the championship-game was winner-take-all, so even though Nebraska lost its opener and Penn State was unbeaten, there would be no second game if the Cornhuskers won.
Still, the Nittany Lions stood up to Nebraska at every turn. Starting pitcher Travis Luensmann held Nebraska without a baserunner through three innings and scoreless until the seventh, when Josh Caron homered to right. Luensmann struck out six, walked none and made a deft play in the fourth inning, catching a squeeze-bunt attempt and turning that into a double play.
This was a magnificent run for the Nittany Lions, who were 11th in the Big Ten standing in early May. Penn State swept a three-game series from Maryland to close the regular season, making the conference tournament as the eighth and final seed. Penn State upset Big Ten regular-season champ Illinois in the opener, then beat Michigan twice to make its first tournament final since 2000.
Penn State won 29 games in Gambino's first season, the most for a rookie head coach in program history. The Nittany Lions sought to make the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2000. Gambino has said his goal is a return trip to the College World Series, where Penn State has not played since 1973.
"I want people to talk about us going to the College World Series here. I do," Gambino said at his introductory press conference in 2023. "It's something that I want to talk about and it's not just about going to Omaha for the Big Ten tournament. I understand that the Big Ten tournament is great and it's fun and I would like to take a shot at winning that thing for sure. But we want to go to the College World Series. I'm not going to hide behind that."
Final. Penn State's tremendous run in the Big Ten Tournament ends in the Big Ten Championship Game.#WeAre pic.twitter.com/719M16Nf39
— Penn State Baseball (@PennStateBASE) May 26, 2024
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