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March 31, 2018
PISCATAWAY, N.J. ââ'¬" The Penn State softball team worked back from a 1-0 deficit but late errors for the Nittany Lion defense allowed Rutgers to come away with the 4-2 victory Saturday, March 31 at RU Softball Complex.
Sophomore Kennedy Legg (Keller, Texas) led the Blue and White offense with two RBI on her first career home run, while also tallying a single on the day. Sophomore Destiny Weber (Grafton, Ohio) also got on base twice for the Nittany Lions with a double into left field and a walk.
Senior Jessica Cummings (Owings, Md.) threw the first three innings in the start and Madison Shaffer (New Castle, Pa.) took the loss, throwing the final three innings.
Rebecca Hall led Rutgers with two hits and one RBI and Whitney Jones picked up her second win of the weekend, tossing 6.0 innings.
Rutgers used back-to-back singles and a suicide squeeze to open the scoring in the bottom of the second inning and take the 1-0 lead over the Nittany Lions with one out. Sophomore Delaney Elling (Washington, Pa.) made a play at the plate on a hard-hit ball to first and a Scarlet Knight made contact out of the box to record the final outs of the inning with RU leading 1-0.
Junior Paige Johnson (Clarksville, Tenn.) led off the top of the fourth inning with a single and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt from Haley Vallejos (Chandler, Ariz.). With a runner in scoring position and two outs, Legg dug into the box and ripped her first career home run over the right center field wall to allow Penn State to take the 2-1 advantage over Rutgers.
An unearned run crossed the plate for the Scarlet Knights to tie the game and a second Penn State miscue would bring in the leading run for Rutgers with no outs in the bottom of the fifth inning. Penn State recorded the first out on a second Elling play at the plate and Dani Fey (Bangor, Pa.) turned the double play as she caught a ball in right and fired a perfect throw to home to catch the runner tagging up.
A leadoff single came around to score for the Scarlet Knights when Hailey Hoklotubbe singled over second base with two outs and extended the Rutgers lead to 4-2 in the bottom of the sixth inning.
Penn State looked to start a rally in the top of the seventh inning as Weber drew a walk and Gianna Arrizurieta (Pembroke Pines, Fla.) laced a stand up double into right center with no outs. A slow roller to short allowed Rutgers to secure two outs on the batter and a run down. Dubois stepped in and was hit by a pitch but called back to the plate before popping out to end the game with Rutgers taking the 4-2 victory.
Up Next:
Penn State and Rutgers conclude its three-game Big Ten Conference series Sunday, April 1. First pitch is set for noon and will be on BTN Plus.