April 17, 2015
| 6 | 8 |
| Maryland Softball Stadium | College Park, Md. | |
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COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- Despite scoring three runs in the top of the seventh inning the Penn State softball team fell to Maryland 8-6 Friday night in the two's first ever meeting as conference opponents.
The game was a back and forth sea saw contest that featured two ties and three lead changes but ultimately a five run fourth inning for the Terps proved to be the difference.
PSU jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the first following an RBI double off the bat of Macy Jones (Ashburn, Va.) but the Terps tied it up in the second with a run of their own to make it 1-1 and then took a 2-1 advantage with another run in the third.
The Nittany Lions surged back though with a pair of runs in the fourth to retake the lead at 3-2. The Blue and White plated a pair off of Jones' ninth home run of the year and then added another courtesy of a Kristina Brackpool RBI single down the left field line.
Down by a run in its half of the fourth Maryland answered with a two-run homer to led off the inning which made it 4-3 and chased starter Marlaina Laubach (Northampton, Pa.) out of the contest.
The Terps then did not treat reliever Jessica Cummings (Owings, Md.) warmly as she took to the circle in her home state as they plated another three off a pair of RBI doubles to take a commanding 7-3 lead.
After tacking on another run in the fifth, it was 8-3 heading into the seventh inning, but that's when Penn State found new life.
Brackpool led off the inning with a base on balls and was pinch run for by Alicia Walker (Los Alamitos, Calif.). Then with two outs and Walker on third, Mollie Sorenson (Stevenson Ranch, Calif.) singled up the middle to make it 8-4.
The two-out rally continued as Shelby Miller (Sugar Land, Texas) singled and then Jones doubled both Sorenson and Miller home to make it 8-6. Alyssa VanDerveer (Hillsborough, N.J.) came to the plate representing the tying run, but a pop out to first halted the Penn State comeback and sealed the victory for Maryland.
Jones had a stellar game playing in front of friends and family from her nearby hometown of Ashburn, Va. The junior leftfielder drove in four runs, going 3-4 with a walk and a run scored. Sorenson also had a multi-hit day, going 2-4 with a pair of runs scored and an RBI.
Laubach was tagged with the loss and goes to 10-8 on the season while the Lions moved to 23-21 on the year with a 6-9 B1G mark. These two squads will be back at it Saturday with a 1 p.m. start time in College Park.