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April 1, 2018
PISCATAWAY, N.J. - The Penn State softball team capped off the weekend series with a 7-3 victory over Rutgers Sunday, April 1 at RU Softball Complex.
The Nittany Lions tallied a season-high 16 hits, scoring seven runs and committing just one error in the field. Junior Toni Polk (Niagara Falls, N.Y.) had a perfect day at the plate going 4-for-4 with one RBI. Junior Meghan Williams (Bethlehem, Pa.) also had a big day at the dish for the Blue and White, going 3-for-4.
Juniors Tori Dubois (Mt. Vernon, N.H.) and Paige Johnson (Clarksville, Tenn.) had two hits and two RBI on the day and sophomore Destiny Weber (Grafton, Ohio) had two hits and one RBI. Dubois and Weber both had home runs for the Nittany Lions with Dubois hitting her third in four games and Weber ripping her first of the season.
Defensively, Penn State tallied two three up, three down innings, while senior Jessica Cummings (Owing, Md.) went the distance in the circle with four strikeouts and giving up just one earned run.
Hailey Hoklotubbe had one hit, drove in one RBI and scored once for Rutgers, while Penn State saw all five of the Scarlet Knights pitching squad. Whitney Jones took the loss in the circle giving up three runs in 2.1 innings of work.
Dubois continued to have the big bat for the Nittany Lions as she launched a two-out home run over the center field fence to allow Penn State to hop out to a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning. Johnson led off the top of the second inning, Polk followed it up with a double into the right field gap and Williams laced a ball at third base to load the bases with no outs. Penn State followed it up with a suicide squeeze from Gianna Arrizurieta (Pembroke Pines, Fla.) to extend its lead to 2-0 over the Scarlet Knights.
A one-out error for the Nittany Lions proved to be detrimental when Hoklotubbe doubled into center field on a bad bounce off the glove of Polk on the attempted diving catch to score the first run of the inning. A second-straight hit brought in a second unearned run for the Scarlet Knights to tie the score at 2-2 after two complete innings.
Penn State returned the favor and capitalized on a Rutgers error in the top of the fourth inning when Dani Fey (Bangor, Pa.) touched home on a Dubois single up the middle with one out to allow the Nittany Lions to take a 3-2 lead. Johnson tacked on two more runs when she singled up the middle and Polk gave the Blue and White a 6-2 lead as she ripped her second double of the day into left center field.
Weber extended the Penn State lead to 7-2 in the top of the sixth inning when she knocked the second Nittany Lion home run of the day and her first of the season over the center field wall.
Three singles and a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the sixth inning brought in one run for the Scarlet Knights but the Penn State defense shut them down in the final inning taking the 7-3 victory.
Up Next:
Penn State returns to Nittany Lion Softball Park and Beard Field for a mid-week non-conference contest against Pittsburgh Tuesday, April 3 at 6 p.m. for a single game.