UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The Penn State softball team, under first-year head coach Clarisa Crowell, is in the middle of a marathon week of 10 games in 10 days to close out the 2021 season with a doubleheader against Michigan State on Tuesday, May 11. The doubleheader, which starts at noon and will stream live on Big Ten Network+, makes up two of four games that were postponed back in mid-April out of an abundance of caution.
GAME INFORMATION
- Game 1 (DH): Tuesday, May 11 | Noon ET | Live Stream ($)
- Game 2 (DH): Tuesday, May 11 | approx. 2:30 p.m. ET | Live Stream ($)
- Live Stats for both games available via msuspartans.com
SERIES HISTORY
- Playing a Big Ten-only schedule in 2021, Penn State will face familiar opponents all season long.
- The Nittany Lions are set to play a doubleheader against the Michigan State Spartans on Tuesday starting at noon in their last road series of the season.
- Penn State leads Michigan State in the all-time series, 37-29.
- The two teams met in the opening weekend of the 2020 season in a non-conference game in Miami, Fla. The Nittany Lions run-ruled the Spartans, 11-0, in five innings, led by Logan Black's one-hit complete-game shutout in the circle.
- Penn State also won the last traditional three-game series back in 2019 in East Lansing, 2-1.
SCOUTING MICHIGAN STATE
- Michigan State, led by 28th-year head coach Jacquie Joseph, has a 12-22 record heading into the final week of the regular season. The Spartans are coming off a 2-2 series split with Wisconsin last weekend in East Lansing.
- Junior Mackenzie Meech is pacing Michigan State offensively, batting .309 with 29 hits and five RBI. Redshirt freshman Jenae Wash leads the Spartans with 13 RBI on 26 hits while senior Caitie Ladd leads the team with 31 hits.
- In the circle, the Michigan State pitching staff holds a 3.13 team ERA. Freshman Emily Miller has pitched the most for the Spartans at 98.0 innings and has the lowest ERA at 1.86 with 90 strikeouts. Miller has three total shutouts, one complete game and two combined.
LAST TIME OUT
- Penn State faced Indiana in Bloomington for a four-game series at the front half of the marathon of 10 games in 10 days. The Hoosiers swept the series, 4-0.
- Redshirt senior Kennedy Legg and juniors Ally Kurland and Chelsea Bisi all hit home runs in game two of Friday's doubleheader for a team season-high three home runs in a game.
CONNECTION TO SPARTY
- Penn State assistant coach Stephanie Sanders has a connection to Michigan State as an alumna.
- Sanders was a four-year letterwinner at Michigan State from 2012-15. She appeared in 177 career games, primarily as a utility player, mostly playing in the outfield.
COOMBS CRUSHIN' IT
- Freshman Melody Coombs has had a good rookie season for the Nittany Lions in 2021.
- Coombs leads the team with a .270 batting average on a team-high 17 hits and nine RBI. She also has a team-best .476 slugging percentage.
- The Mechanicsville, Md., native had a single-game best performance in the series finale at Nebraska on March 28, going 4-for-5 at the plate with her first career home run.
- Coombs' four hits is the most hits in a single game by a Nittany Lion since the 2018 season.
ON DECK
Penn State concludes the 2021 season within the friendly confines of Nittany Lion Softball Park and Beard Field with a four-game series against a ranked Minnesota squad, May 14-16.