OMAHA, Neb. — The Penn State baseball team advanced to day 2 of pool play on Wednesday, thanks to a 5-3 win over Washington at the Big Ten Tournament.

The Nittany Lions play USC this afternoon at 3 p.m. If they win, they are in the tournament semifinals on Saturday at Charles Schwab Field.

Central grad Paxton Kling was the catalyst in Penn State’s much-needed win. He fielded every ball hit his way cleanly, and even though he didn’t record any RBIs, the centerfielder went two-for-three and was intentionally walked, plus he scored two of Penn State’s five runs.

He finished with a single, a double, an intentional walk and a lineout hard to first base. Jesse Jaconski singled Kling home for an early 1-0 lead in the first inning.

One of his runs was an incredible effort where he scored from second base on a sacrifice fly to deep centerfield by Bryce Molinaro, where the Washington player who caught the ball crashed into the wall, turned and threw the ball back to the cutoff man, but did not fire it into him.

Kling kept running and was called safe at home, even though Washington challenged the play. The call was upheld and Penn State was up 3-0 in the sixth inning.

Penn State made it 5-0 in the seventh inning on an RBI single by Cohl Mercado.

Washington made it interesting when A.J. Guerrero smacked a two-run homer off reliever Anthony Steel in the bottom of the eighth to cut the deficit to 5-2.

In the ninth, the Huskies added another run when Guerrero got an infield RBI single to make it 5-3. However, reliever Matt Vanostenbridge got Sam DeCarlo to line out to short to end the game.

Starting pitcher Ryan DeSanto pitched shutout ball into the sixth inning, giving up no runs on three hits. Diamond Loosli added an inning-plus of scoreless relief. Steele was charged with two runs and Vanostenbridge one run.

Game notes: Penn State’s 32 wins are tied for the second-most in a season in program history. PSU also had 32 wins in 1985, 1996, 1999 and 2011. The program record is 45 wins in 2000.