April 23, 2015
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - By Jack Dougherty, GoPSUsports.com Student Staff Writer UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Penn State softball team split its doubleheader with Saint Francis University Wednesday night. The Nittany Lions dropped game one 5-4 then rebounded with a resounding 14-2 (5) victory in game two.
The gloomy skies and scattered showers threatened to shorten the night, but a little water wasn't enough to stop the two Commonwealth foes from completing both contests. The mixture of rain, wind, and chilly temperatures usually goes great with some defensive mishaps, but the stout PSU group only committed one error on the night.
In game one, Jessica Cummings pitched a fantastic game in the wet conditions. The freshman completed all seven innings while allowing only six hits and notching five strikeouts, but the Red Flash were able to push across five runs in the contest.
"I'm very happy with Jess. I think they only had really two hard hits the whole game," said head coach Amanda Lehotak. "She has had a bit of bit luck. We call her the bloop queen. We haven't really played well behind her either, but she keeps getting better and better. If she's going to pitch her best ball, now's the time to do it."
Offensively, the Nittany Lions stalled a bit against three SFU hurlers. The team totaled five hits in the game, but they saw productions across the lineup as four different Nittany Lions recorded an RBI. Sophomore Shelby Miller continued her offensive onslaught with two of PSU's five base knocks. She has now risen her batting average to .355 on the year.
Penn State had a chance in the bottom of the seventh, but the late rally ran out of gas. After a pair of one out walks with the bases loaded, the Nittany Lions found themselves within one run with the powerful Kristina Brackpool coming to the plate. Brackpool, who leads the team in RBIs, put together a solid at-bat and fouled off pitch after pitch until finally popping up to end the game. She did, however, smack a double earlier in the game and added another RBI to give her 42 on the season.
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