March 22, 2015
| 4 | 5 |
| Sunday, Mar. 21, 2015 | |
Beard Field | University Park, Pa. | Attn: 386
| POST GAME LINKS |
| Box Score (HTML) | (PDF) |
VIDEO: Post Game Interview (Lehotak)
| FINAL STATISTICS |
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Despite a two-run comeback in the bottom of the seventh against Northwestern, the Penn State softball team fell to the Wildcats Sunday, 5-4 in eight innings. Down 4-2 during their last turn at bat, the Lions used a triple, a single and a double to tie the contest up and send it into extra frames.
Lexi Knief (Ramsey, N.J.) led off the inning with a triple off the center field wall and crossed home plate on an RBI single courtesy of Shelby Miller (Sugar Land, Texas). Miller accounted for the game's tying run after Kristina Brackpool (Valencia, Calif.) doubled to left center and then was pinch ran for by Alicia Walker (Los Alamitos, Calif.). PSU had a chance to notch its first walk off win at Beard Field in 2015 but a swinging strike with the bases loaded sent the contest to the eighth.
With one out in the top of the eighth, Northwestern left fielder Olivia Duehr smacked a home run to right for the go ahead and eventual winning Wildcat run. In the bottom of the eight, Amanda Lehotak's squad again showed resiliency, putting runners on second and third with one out following a hit by pitch, a single and a sac bunt. With the potential tying run just 60 feet away, a pop out and a groundout ended the contest and gave NU the series sweep.
The game began with Northwestern putting runs on the board against starter Marlaina Laubach (Northampton, Pa.), in the first, second and third innings to make it 4-1, but then Macy Jones (Ashburn, Va.) came in from left field to the circle in relief during the top of the third. Jones quieted Wildcat bats from then on, allowing five hits on that one run in the top of the eighth, while striking out four and walking one. She was the hard luck loser in the valiant comeback attempt, moving to 3-1 on the season.
Despite the defeat, Penn State did crank out a half dozen hits on the day including another home run off the bat of Alyssa VanDerveer (Hillsborough, N.J.), her second is as many days. VanDerveer stroked an offering from NU starter Kristin Wood to deep center field in the second to cut the Cats' deficit to 3-1.
Miller also had a pair of RBI on Sunday as one run came on a sac fly and the other on an infield hit. Knief was the only Blue and White batter with a multi-hit day as she went 2-5 and finished the series 5-12 with a double, a triple and eight total bases.
Penn State now (13-15, 0-3) continues its six game home stand with a doubleheader vs. Robert Morris, slated for Wednesday, Mar. 25 at 5 p.m. and 7 p.m.