April 24, 2011
Longwood 5, Penn State 3 (8 inn.) | Longwood 3, Penn State 0
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Nittany Lion softball team lost a pair of tough games on Easter Sunday to Longwood, 5-3 and 3-0, at Beard Field. Alyssa Sovereign (La Canada, Calif.) tallied two hits on the afternoon for Penn State.
LONGWOOD 5, PENN STATE 3 (8 innings)
In the doubleheader opener, Jackie Hill (San Jose, Calif.) threw eight innings of five-hit ball, but it wasn't enough as the Nittany Lions' fielding let them down in a 5-3 extra-inning loss to Longwood.
With Penn State down 1-0 in the third inning, the Nittany Lions mounted a rally when they loaded the bases with one out behind a Cassidy Bell (Bakersfield, Calif.) hit-by-pitch, a Lisa Akamine (Escondido, Calif.) single to left and a Kailyn Johnson (Yorba Linda, Calif.) walk. The ensuing batter, Kasie Hatfield (Tampa, Fla.) flared a hit to center that scored Bell from third to tie the game, but Johnson was thrown out at second on the fielder's choice. PSU was unable to add anymore momentum for the time being.
Following zeroes in the next three half-innings, Bell smashed her sixth homer of the year to lead off the fifth inning as Penn State took its first lead of the day at 2-1. Unfortunately for Penn State, the lead was short-lived as Longwood capitalized on an error that would've been the second out of the inning as Jordan Cox reached safely. Cox would eventually score on a Tricia Nelson single and Hill would work out of the jam with a liner to short and a foul out to first.
A scoreless seventh gave way to the pivotal eighth inning where Brooke Short hit her 16th home run of the year, a two-run blast thanks to the international tiebreaker rule, which put pinch-runner Amy Putnam on second base. Following a ground out, Ashley Kramer hit her second homer of the season for a 5-2 Longwood advantage.
The Nittany Lions fought till the bitter end as Akamine was on second to start and Johnson singled to move her to third. Hatfield was hit by a 2-0 pitch to load the bases and a sharp liner from Sovereign nearly scored a pair, but Kami Nuckols corralled the ball for the first out. Lauren Yao (Los Angeles, Calif.) knocked home an RBI with a single to right, giving PSU life. Nevertheless, a line-out double play to second base ended the ball game as PSU dropped its third straight.
Hill struck out three in the game while walking only one as the redshirt-senior fell to 14-11 in the circle.
LONGWOOD 3, PENN STATE 0
Much like the first game, Longwood took a first-inning 1-0 lead when Nichole Simmons laced her sixth home run of the season over the leftfield wall to open the game.
Penn State (23-21) couldn't get much offense in the first game as Briana Wells (29-11) pitched 15 innings of softball, giving up 10 hits and two earned runs along with seven walks and seven strikeouts. Wells kept the Nittany Lions at bay as she helped herself in the fourth inning with the second of two consecutive RBI doubles to pad Longwood's lead at 3-0.
The Nittany Lions didn't put anyone in scoring position until the sixth inning when Johnson walked and reached second on a Sovereign single to centerfield. Wells allowed four hits in the second ball game, all singles by Penn State.
Akamine threw all seven innings with three runs against, four hits and two walks allowed to go along with seven strikeouts.
Longwood improved to 32-11 overall on the season, while Penn State lost its fourth in a row after heartbreaking 5-4 losses to No. 1 Michigan on Wednesday night at Nittany Lion Softball Park. The Lancers and Nittany Lions are now deadlocked 2-2 in the all-time series.
Penn State looks to bounce back this upcoming Wednesday against host Ohio State. The Big Ten doubleheader kicks off at 5:00 p.m.in Columbus and the games can be followed through GameTracker as well as commentary and analysis on Twitter (www.twitter.com/PSULionSoftball).
--NITTANY LIONS--