March 1, 2015
| 6 | 2 |
| 1 | 2 |
| Sunday, Mar. 1, 2015 | CITRUS CLASSIC | |
ESPN's Wide World of Sports | Orlando, Fla.
| POST GAME LINKS |
| Game 1: Box Score (HTML) | (PDF) |
| Game 2: Box Score (HTML) | (PDF) |
| Play-by-Plays: Game 1 | Game 2 |
ORLANDO, Fla. - Led by the arm and the bat of junior Macy Jones (Ashburn, Va.), the Penn State softball team earned a doubleheader split Sunday at the Citrus Classic, defeating Western Illinois 6-2 and falling to James Madison, 2-1 in eight innings.
Jones started the Western Illinois game in left field but entered the circle to spell starter Jessica Cummings (Owing, Md.) in the third. She got out of a bases loaded jam and went on to secure the win and then hit the game tying home run in the second contest which eventually sent it into extras.
Penn State got out to a quick 4-0 lead over the Leathernecks in the first game after a base clearing three RBI double by Reina Furuya (Waipahu, Hawaii) in the second.
Western Illinois then plated two in the third before Jones stopped the bleeding by inducing a pop fly to first to halt the WIU rally.
The Lions tacked on runs in the fifth off a Kristina Brackpool (Valencia, Calif.) home run and then again in the seventh after another Furuya double and an error by the Leatherneck infield.
Picking up her second win of the year, Jones was brilliant in relief, surrendering just four hits and walking one in 4.1 innings of work.
In the second game the Dukes and Nittany Lions put zero's across the board through the first three innings before James Madison broke the stalemate in the fourth after a double and an infield single.
With one out in the sixth Jones stepped to the plate and stroked her third home run of the season to deep right field, which gave her team new life and eventually sent the contest into extra innings.
Playing in its second eight inning game in three days, Penn State surrendered the go ahead and eventual winning run in the top of the eighth off of a leadoff double which scored the JMU runner who was placed on second to start the inning due to the international tiebreaker rule.
Marlaina Laubach was the hard luck loser in Game No. 2, going all eight innings and surrendering seven hits on one earned run, while walking just one.
With the split Amanda Lehotak's squad moves to 8-9 on the year after a 2-2 weekend down in Orlando and will next play Thursday, Mar. 12 in a doubleheader vs. Pacific before taking part in the Capital Classic, hosted by Sacramento State (Mar. 12-14).