If Mac Hippenhammer’s two-touchdown performance in Saturday’s Blue-White Game tells anything, it’s that Penn State baseball’s offense is more productive on the gridiron. Hippenhammer is a dual sport athlete, splitting time as a wide receiver for James Franklin and as utility man for Rob Cooper’s Diamond Lions.

Last fall, Hippenhammer was redshirted on the football team, but he turned heads in the spring game last weekend, hauling in four catches for 43 yards and two touchdowns for the Blue Team in its 21-10 victory over White.

Unfortunately, offensive production from Penn State baseball players seemed to be exclusive to the football field this weekend, as the Nittany Lions were routed in a three game series against Michigan in Ann Arbor. In those three games, Penn State lost 19-5, 8-7, and 14-2, respectively. As of April 19, Penn State baseball’s offense was ranked 286 out of 297 Division I baseball teams in total runs scored with 117.

Humorously, Penn State baseball took three games to score 14 runs, while Hippenhammer scored 12 points in two grabs in one afternoon. Comparing apples to oranges is fun and all, but summing the scoring totals of all Penn State baseball players together (whether they were actually playing baseball or not) yields 26. Even with this fun, mathematical exercise, the Wolverines outscored the Nittany Lions by 15 runs this weekend. In another fun, numerical exercise, there have been four games this season in which Hippenhammer’s gridiron-production-inaccurately-translated-to-runs would not have made a difference — games in which Penn State baseball lost by 12 or more runs.

This has certainly been a bumpy season for the 8-25 Diamond Lions, as one might guess by the fact that the best offensive performance by one of their players took place on a football field. Hopefully Penn State baseball took some notes on scoring after watching Hippenhammer’s Blue-White highlights. It should be interesting to see whether Hippenhammer, who’s on a full football scholarship, can continue at this high level of production this fall.