| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
April 28, 2017
COLLEGE PARK, Md. - The Penn State softball team's offense came out against the Terrapins of Maryland Friday, April 28 at Maryland Softball Stadium in a Big Ten Conference contest as the Nittany Lions scored 10 runs in its 10-3 victory.
The Blue and White used nine hits and had three three-run innings, including three players with two-or-more RBIs and two players with 2-or-more hits in the win over Maryland. Penn State's 10 runs mark just the fourth time in the 2017 season that the Nittany Lions have reached double-digit scoring against an opponent.
Senior Shelby Miller (Sugar Land, Texas) is now just one RBI shy of the No. 3 spot in Penn State softball laurels as she drove in three RBIs against the Terrapins to bring her career total to 117. Miller tallied one hit on the day to score three runs for Penn State and drove in one final run for the Blue and White. Senior Kristina Brackpool (Valencia, Calif.) also had a day at the plate for the Nittany Lions, bringing in three runs on three hits, while Tori Dubois (Mt. Vernon, N.H.) went 2-for-4 with two RBIs and scored twice. Sophomore Rebecca Ziegler (Tucson, Ariz.) was a huge contributor to the Penn State success, notching one hit, drawing three walks and touching home four times in the contest.
Senior hurler Marlaina Laubach (Northampton, Pa.) went all seven innings in the circle, giving up just eight hits and walking only one.
Skylynne Ellazar went 2-for-3 at the plate with two RBIs on a double into the left center gap, while Bridgette Nordberg drove in the final RBI for the Terrapins with a double into left center. The Nittany Lions saw three pitchers in the contest with starter Madison Martin suffering the loss after going four innings and fiving up three earned runs.
Penn State got its bats going early against the Terrapins with a leadoff hit from Ziegler. Ziegler would come around to score on a Delaney Elling (Washington, Pa.) single into right field and a Brackpool single into the right center field gap would bring in two more runs and give the Nittany Lions an early 3-0 advantage in the top of the first inning.
The Blue and White loaded the bases in the top of the second inning with one out for Miller, who ripped a bases-clearing double into the left center field gap to extend the Penn State lead to 6-0 over the Terrapins.
Maryland answered in the bottom of the second inning, scoring two unearned runs on one error and two hits, including a double into the left center gap to come within four of Penn State, 6-2.
Miller came up for the second time in the contest with runners in scoring position, this time working the count to full before hitting a ball to second that would bring in Ziegler from third base and allow Penn State to take a 7-2 lead over the Terps.
Once again, Maryland responded in the bottom half of the fourth with a double into left center to score one run and bring the score to 7-3 in favor of the NIttany Lions. With runners on second and third, the Penn State defense turned a double play with a grounder to Laubach and a perfect throw home from Brackpool to get the runner coming from third and close out the inning.
Dubois continued to impress at the plate as she has done all Big Ten season, blasting a two-run home run over the left field fence in the top of the sixth inning to put Penn State up 9-3 over Maryland. The Nittany Lions maintained the pressure in the top of the sixth inning when Brackpool doubled off the left center field wall to plate the third run of the inning and 10th of the game for the Blue and White.
Laubach gave up one hit in the seventh inning but the Penn State defense shut down the final outs of the inning and secured the 10-3 win for the Blue and White.
Up Next:
The Nittany Lions and Terrapins will play game two of the three-game series Saturday, April 29 at 1 p.m. The game is set to be featured on BTN Plus with a paid subscription.