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April 9, 2017
YPSILANTI, Mich. - The Penn State softball team dropped the final game, 6-4, of a three-game series with the Michigan State Spartans Sunday, April 9 at Varsity Field on the campus of Eastern Michigan University.
The Nittany Lions (15-21, 3-6 B1G) took an early lead but a five-run inning for the Spartans (21-12, 5-4 B1G) in the bottom of the fourth proved too much for Penn State to overcome in the loss.
Freshman Delaney Elling (Washington, Pa.) tallied three hits in four at-bats, while redshirt-sophomore Rebecca Ziegler (Tucson, Ariz.) and sophomore Tori Dubois (Mt. Vernon, N.H) had two hits apiece for the Blue and White. Ziegler, Shelby Miller (Sugar Land, Texas) and Gianna Arrizurieta (Pembroke Pines, Fla.) all brought in one run for Penn State.
The Nittany Lions outhit Michigan State, 9-8 on the day, however the Spartans used two two-run home runs to propel it to victory.
Penn State capitalized on a leadoff walk in the top of the third inning when back-to-back bunts moved Sam Shananhan (Seattle, Wash.) 60 feet from home and she came into score on a shallow single to left field from Kristina Brackpool (Valencia, Calif.). The Blue and White juiced the bases in the top of the fourth inning for Ziegler, who hit a sacrifice fly into left field to put Penn State up 2-0 over the Spartans.
Michigan State answered in the bottom half of the inning using a leadoff walk and a deep ball over the center field wall from Lindsey Besson to score two runs and knot the score at 2-2 with no outs. Penn State was able to get the lead runner following an infield hit but a triple into the left center field gap allowed the Spartans to go up 3-2. Kelcey Carassco launched the second two-run homer of the inning for the Green and White, giving MSU the 5-2 lead before a diving play at second closed out the inning for the Penn State defense.
The Nittany Lions began to chip away at the Spartan lead in the top of the fifth inning with a walk and back-to-back hits to score one run. With two runners on base and no outs, Arrizurieta placed a sacrifice fly into deep center field plating the second run of the inning and putting Penn State within one, 5-4.
MSU brought its lead back to two runs in the bottom of the fifth inning putting runners on first and third and working a pickle play into scoring the run.
The Nittany Lions put two runners on in the top of the sixth and had one hit in the seventh but were unable to push any other runs across the plate, falling in to the Spartans in the Big Ten Conference series.
Up Next:
Penn State will return to Nittany Lion Softball Park and Beard Field for a mid-week Big Ten Conference doubleheader against Ohio State Wednesday, April 12. Game one of the two-game series is slated for 5 p.m. and game two will start at approximately 7:30 p.m. Fans who cannot make it to Beard Field can catch all the action live on BTN Plus with a paid subscription.