May 6, 2013
Box Score | 2013 Big Ten Softball Tournament Bracket
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - A day after rallying to take a 3-2 victory over No. 14/15 Nebraska, Penn State came up short as the Huskers claimed the series with a 2-0 win Monday afternoon in the final 2013 regular-season contest at Beard Field and Nittany Lion Softball Park.
Penn State (15-33, 5-17 Big Ten) now turns its attention to the Big Ten tournament in Lincoln, Neb. The 11th-seeded Nittany Lions will take on No. 6 seed Illinois at 5:30 p.m. ET Thursday in the first round of the event. The winner of that clash will face third-seeded Minnesota at 5:30 p.m. Friday. Penn State did not face either Illinois or Minnesota in the regular season.
Freshman Macy Jones (12-17) (Ashburn, Va.) threw her 13th complete game of the season, scattering seven Nebraska hits to allow just two runs while picking up one strikeout. Tatum Edwards (25-8) earned the victory for the Huskers, limiting Penn State to one hit while walking a pair of batters over seven innings.
Down 2-0 in the bottom of the sixth, junior Liz Presto (Bethlehem, Pa.) drew a one-out walk before senior Rachel Myers (Millheim, Pa.) entered the game as a pinch runner. Senior Cassidy Bell (Bakersfield, Calif.) followed up with a sharp single to right field to put Myers on third. In the next at-bat, classmate Lauren Yao (Los Angeles, Calif.) lined a 1-2 pitch toward first but Nebraska's Mattie Fowler used a quick glove to haul it in and end the scoring opportunity for the Nittany Lions.
The game wrapped up a low-scoring series between the squads as they combined to post just 11 runs over three contests. Bell and Kailyn Johnson (Yorba Linda, Calif.) led the team with a pair of hits through the weekend while Yao led Penn State with three RBI, all accounted for on a double that led the Blue and White to victory in the Sunday game.
Jones finished the weekend with a 1.50 ERA through 14.0 innings of work as she also threw a complete contest Saturday while limiting Nebraska to just three hits. Sophomore hurler Marissa Diescher (Livingston Manor, N.Y.) earned the win Sunday with five scoreless innings of work on the mound.