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March 28, 2018
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Penn State softball team mounted a comeback with a six run inning capped off with a Tori Dubois (Mt. Vernon, N.H.) grand slam to take the 9-7 victory in game one against Robert Morris before falling 5-0 in game two of the doubleheader at Nittany Lion Softball Park and Beard Field Wednesday, March 28.
I'm happy to get away with the split tonight, commented head coach Amanda Lehotak. "Again, we had another come-from-behind win in game one so obviously we've proven our character and our fight in that. For whatever reason, I said to the team in about the fourth or the fifth inning, we just have not played well in a doubleheader setting and that's got to be fixed. I don't know what we're missing on that, what's going wrong and why we can't sustain it for 14 innings. We're typically good for seven and then we die off so that's got to be fixed. That will be addressed somehow. But other than that, I liked the fight. Tori Dubois's grand slam is always exciting. What a rarity in this game, so that was pretty fun. And then I thought [Madison] Shaffer in game one settled back down and did exactly what we needed her to do game one."
Dubois's grand slam marked the first for the Nittany Lions since the 2017 campaign when Delaney Elling (Washington, Pa.) blasted a shot against Iowa State, March 4, 2017. Dubois paced the Blue and White offense, driving in four runs and tallying two hits. Junior Toni Polk (Niagara Falls, N.Y.) and sophomores Destiny Weber (Grafton, Ohio) and Kennedy Legg (Keller, Texas) also tallied multi-hit games with two hits apiece on the day.
Freshman Dani Fey (Bangor, Pa.) continued to do her job as the leadoff hitter and get on base, drawing three walks, bringing in one run and scoring one time for the Blue and White to extend her current reached base streak to seven games.
Junior Madison Shaffer (New Castle, Pa.) came on in relief in the top of the first inning and earned the complete game victory with seven strikeouts, while coming on in relief in game two and giving up just one run in two innings of work.
Taryn Miller led the Colonials at the plate with three hits and five RBI on the day. Kailin Ellzy earned the start in both games, going 4.2 innings in game one before Laura Coulter took the loss, giving up the grand slam. Ellzy came back in game two to pitch the complete game shutout for Robert Morris.
Game One: Penn State 9, Robert Morris 7
The Colonials loaded the bases on two walks and a hit batter before a wild pitch scored one run and forced a Penn State pitching change with bases loaded and no outs. Shaffer came in and struck out the first batter she faced but a one-out single up the middle would bring in two and extend the Colonial lead to 3-0 in the top of the first inning.
Taylor Bartlow led off the top of the second inning with a single down the right field line and touched home on a Natalie Higgins single through the right side of the infield to push RMU's lead to 4-0.
Penn State put pressure on the Robert Morris defense forcing an error on a hard hit ball to third and loading the bases for Weber, who singled into left field to plate the first run of the inning. The Blue and White tacked on one more run with Fey drew the RBI walk to bring the Nittany Lions within two, 4-2.
Robert Morris used three hits, including triple to the right field fence, to score three runs and extend its lead to 7-2 in the top of the fourth inning.
The Nittany Lions loaded the bases for the second time in the contest on a Dubois single and cut the RMU lead to 7-3 in the bottom of the fourth inning on an Elling sacrifice fly to center field.
An infield error put a runner on base for Penn State before Polk laced a triple to the right field wall to make the score 7-4 with one out. The Blue and White juiced the bases for the third time in the contest with two outs on the board.
Dubois dug into the box and worked the count to 2-1 before blasting a grand slam over the left field wall to put the lead into Penn State's hands, 8-7. The Nittany Lions tacked on one final run in the inning when Paige Johnson (Clarksville, Tenn.) doubled into center field to allow Penn State to take a 9-7 lead into the sixth inning.
Penn State shut down the RMU offense for the final two at-bats including three strikeouts from Shaffer in the top of the seventh to close out the 9-7 victory.
Game Two: Robert Morris 5, Penn State 0
Each team was held scoreless in the first inning and Robert Morris lit up the scoreboard in the top of the second inning when a walk scored on a first and third run down situation. Just like game one, the Colonials took the 3-0 advantage in the bottom of the third inning when a single off the left field wall scored two following a pitching change.
Robert Morris pushed its lead to 4-0 on a Briana Bunner two-out home run over the left center field wall in the top of the fourth inning.
Two doubles in the top of the sixth inning allowed the Colonials to maintain a 5-0 lead through the remaining innings and earn the shutout win over the Nittany Lions.
Up Next:
Penn State continues its Big Ten Conference season when it travels to Piscataway, New Jersey for a three-game away series with Scarlet Knights of Rutgers Friday, March 30-April 1. Game one of the series is set for Friday, March 30 at 3 p.m.