UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The Penn State softball team (20-21, 4-7 Big Ten) split the season series with Ohio State (24-12, 8-3 Big Ten) in a doubleheader Tuesday evening at Nittany Lion Softball Park and Beard Field. The Nittany Lions rallied in game one to win 6-4 before dropping game two, 12-1, in five innings.
"Those were two completely different games," said head coach Amanda Lehotak. "I'm really glad that we got the first game and that we held on for a victory. The second game, our wheels fell off. We've been doing that where we've been having one bad inning lately and we have to find a way to fix it."
Game 1: Penn State 6, Ohio State 4
After trailing by two in the opening two frames, Penn State rallied for a four-run third inning to take the lead and never looked back to be victorious in game one of the series doubleheader.
Ohio State struck first, after a walk and a hit put runners on first and second before back-to-back defensive errors by Penn State gave the Buckeyes the 1-0 lead in the opening frame.
The Buckeyes made it a 2-0 game after two, scoring one run on three hits in the top of the second.
Senior Toni Polk started the bottom half of the third for Penn State with a lead-off single, before freshman Claire Swedberg put down a perfect bunt to put two runners on with no outs.
Classmate Chelsea Bisi then reached on a fielding error by Ohio State which scored Polk and made it a one-run game. Junior Destiny Weber then singled through the left side to score both Swedberg and classmate Christa Wagner who was pinch running for Bisi to give the Nittany Lions their first lead of the day.
One more defensive error by Ohio State in the half inning allowed Weber to successfully slide home past the catcher to give Penn State the 4-2 advantage after three.
The Penn State defense held Ohio State scoreless in the middle innings before the Buckeyes tacked on a run in the top of the sixth with a solo home run.
Two more hits by sophomore Dani Fey and Bisi and two more fielding errors by Ohio State allowed the Nittany Lions to score twice more in the bottom of the sixth for their largest lead of the day.
Ohio State threatened with two more hits and a run in the top of the seventh but the Penn State defense took care of business to get out with a win.
Kylee Lingenfelter picked up her eighth win in the circle while Bailey Parshall earned her fifth save, the most in the conference.
The Penn State defense stranded 17 Ohio State base runners, including making the Buckeyes go 0-for-8 in the game with the bases loaded.
Game 2 (5 innings): Penn State 1, Ohio State 12
Game two went the opposite way for Penn State, as Ohio State jumped out for the early lead and the Nittany Lions were unable to comeback, falling in five innings.
The Buckeyes scored one run in both the top of the first and second innings before adding nine runs in the third on 10 hits.
Penn State's lone run came in the bottom of the third after Toni Polk singled in the lead-off spot and advanced to second on a passed ball before Chelsea Bisi hit a double to deep right field to score Polk.
Claire Swedberg, Destiny Weber and Melina Livingston also recorded hits in the outing.
On Deck
Penn State continues its conference homestand through the week, welcoming Rutgers to Happy Valley for a three-game series, April 12-14. First pitch for game one Friday evening is scheduled for 6 p.m. and will stream via BTN Plus.
