Feb. 15, 2015
COLLEGE STATION, Texas - Despite nearly flawless relief from Marlaina Laubach (Northampton, Pa.) and a late inning rally, the Penn State softball's comeback bid against Eastern Michigan fell just short, Sunday as the team dropped its Aggie Classic finale, 2-1.
Making her fourth relief appearance of the weekend, Laubach entered the contest in the second inning, relieving starter Jessica Cummings (Owing, Md.), who went one and a third, surrendering two runs on three hits.
Laubach took to the circle with one out and one on and retired the next to Eagle batters on a fielder's choice and a pop out to thwart the EMU rally.
From there the Penn State sophomore was nearly perfect as she pitched a total of 5.2 innings and did not give up a hit, while only walking one and fanning a pair.
The Lions mounted their late inning comeback attempt in the bottom of the sixth after a leadoff single by Reina Furuya (Waipahu, Hawaii) and sac bunt by Lexi Knief (Ramsey, N.J.), which put Furuya in scoring position.
After a Macy Jones (Ashburn, Va.) ground out to first, a throwing error by the Eagle third baseman on an Alyssa VanDerveer (Hillsborough, N.J.) at bat allowed Furuya to come around and score her team's first run.
After another perfect inning from Laubach in the top of the seventh, the Lions went quietly in their last at bats, 1-2-3 to Eastern Michigan starter Lindsay Rich.
Laubach's efforts this past weekend were quite impressive as the hurler saw 17.2 combined relief innings in the circle all of which she entered with runners either on base or in scoring position. She picked up a pair of wins because of her clutch pitching and only gave up four hits and one unearned run, while walking five and striking out nine for a spotless 0.00 ERA.
Amanda Lehotak's squad finishes the Aggie Classic with a 3-2 mark after a pair of wins over Missouri State and the big upset over No. 22 Texas A&M, Saturday night.
PSU is now 6-4 to start the 2015 campaign and will play a three game set at Mississippi State next weekend (Feb. 21-22) in Starkville.