'I Believe There Will Be Dogpiles,' Penn State Baseball Coach Mike Gambino Says

The first-year coach predicted "dogpiles" and "championships" after the Nittany Lions' run to the Big Ten Tournament championship game.

Penn State baseball coach Mike Gambino, pictured at his introductory press conference in State College in 2023. / Courtesy Penn State Athletics

Not long after his team fell to Nebraska in the Big Ten Tournament championship game, Penn State baseball coach Mike Gambino made a prediction.

"I told the team afterward, 'There will be dogpiles,'" Gambino said Sunday. "I believe it. There will be pictures on the wall, there will be championships. I believe Penn State will be back here, not just for the Big Ten Tournament but for the main course."

The Nittany Lions on Sunday capped a marvelous May run with a 2-1 loss to Nebraska in the Big Ten title game at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha. The stadium, which also hosts the College World Series, is about an hour from Nebraska's campus and was blanketed in red for the Cornhuskers' first conference tournament title. Adam Cecere, one of three Nittany Lions who made the all-tournament team, said he wouldn't have wanted to "dogpile" anywhere else.

"I’m blessed with the opportunity to play for this great university, move back to my area code, and go at it for one more year," said Cecere, a Pennsylvania native who transferred to Penn State from Wake Forest for his final season. "I’m blessed with great teammates, I’m blessed with a great coaching staff, I’m blessed with a great university."

Gambino, who won more games than any first-year baseball coach in Penn State history, continued Cecere's theme of being "blessed." He took the job in July 2023, about two weeks after after signing a contract extension with Boston College, where he had coached for 10 seasons. At Boston College, Gambino worked with Athletic Director Patrick Kraft, who became Penn State's athletic director in 2022. In bringing Gambino to Penn State, Kraft promised a "huge investment" in baseball. Gambino said he has seen that.

"This will be a story about Pat Kraft, Vinnie James [Penn State's deputy AD for internal operations] and the Penn State athletic department investing in a sport they believe in," Gambino said at his post-game press conference Sunday. "People told me before we took job, and since, how much the fan base, one, loves Penn State and Penn State athletics, which everybody knows about. But also how much they love baseball, and how much they will rally behind it. And I'll tell you, I've been blown away, and we're just getting going as a department."

"I believe Penn State will be back here, not just for the Big Ten Tournament but for the main course."

Penn State baseball coach Mike Gambino on the Nittany Lions' future. (Video courtesy Big Ten). pic.twitter.com/cO1qt0zoEh

— Mark Wogenrich (@MarkWogenrich) May 26, 2024

Penn State, which finished the season 29-24, certainly didn't have the Big Ten Tournament in its sightline in early May. The team had a 8-12 Big Ten record and was 11th in the conference standings after a 7-1 home loss to Rutgers on May 11. But the Nittany Lions won their final four Big Ten games, including a three-game series sweep at Maryland, to close the regular season and qualify for the Big Ten Tournament as the eighth and final seed. Gambino said at the tournament that the Nittany Lions had been playing Game 7s for weeks.

In Omaha, they won three of them. Penn State defeated top-seeded Illinois in the opener and then won back-to-back games against Michigan to reach its first Big Ten Tournament championship game since 2000. Penn State beat Michigan on an eighth-inning grand slam from Bryce Molinaro and a 10th-inning home run from Cecere.

Nebraska, playing so close to home, helped put 13,300 fans in Charles Schwab Field, though pockets of Penn State fans were in Omaha. Gambino said Nebraska "put an elite college baseball atmosphere out there today." He believes Penn State will do the same.

"We can do that, we can do that, we'll do that," Gambino said.

Penn State has not played in the NCAA Baseball Tournament since 2000 and has not reached the College World Series since 1973. "I think it's really hard to skip steps when you're building something," Gambino said of the process of returning. However, the coach called this Big Ten Tournament appearance a start.

"I'll tell you what I told this group," Gambino said in his press conference. "I'm proud of them, I love them, and this group just changed everything."

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AllPennState is the place for Penn State news, opinion and perspective on the SI.com network. Publisher Mark Wogenrich has covered Penn State for more than 20 years, tracking three coaching staffs, three Big Ten titles and a catalog of great stories. Follow him on Twitter @MarkWogenrich.