Jacksonville, Fla.- The Penn State softball team begin their season 2-0 after defeating Cleveland State (6-1) and UNF (5-0) at the JU/UNF Invitational on Friday. The Nittany Lions were led by stellar performances from Liana Jones (Langhorne, Pa.) who had a home run and four RBIs, and Bailey Parshall (Belle Vernon, Pa.) who pitched eight innings of scoreless ball.
Game 1: Penn State 6, Cleveland State 1
Penn State's season opener started out in a staunch pitchers duel. Penn State's Kylee Lingenfelter (Punxsutawney, Pa) and Cleveland State's Melissa Holzopfel traded clean slates during the first two innings before two-straight Nittany Lion singles by Lauren Marcotte (Torrance, Calif.) and Emily Maddock (Kempton, Pa.) created traffic on the basepaths in the third.
Senior Maggie Finnegan (McHenry, Ill.) hit a bases clearing triple over the center fielder's head breaking the tie for the Nittany Lions.
Cleveland State would strike back in the top of the fourth inning capitalizing on two Nittany Lion errors. Lingenfelter would work herself out of the jam but not before the Vikings pushed one across the plate.
The Nittany Lions stayed quiet in the bottom half of the fourth, and Penn State ace Parshall silenced the Cleveland State bats in the top half of the fifth, giving the Nittany Lions an opportunity to open the game up with their bats.
The fifth inning began with Marcote and Maddock both reaching base bringing the leadoff hitter Jones up to the plate with two runners on. Jones delivered in a big way, sending a ball over the right field wall and giving the Nittany Lions a four-run lead, 5-1. Kaitlyn Morrison (South Park, Pa.) smashed a double later in the inning bringing home another run, and the Nittany Lions entered the sixth inning with a 6-1 advantage.
Lingenfelter re-entered the game in the sixth and closed out the final two innings, incurring no trouble. She finished game one pitching six innings, giving up two hits and fanning five batters.
Game 2: Penn State 5, UNF 0-
Penn State got the early jump on UNF when Finnegan singled to the right side and then Kathryn Rex (Toledo, Ohio) doubled to drive Finnegan in. UNF answered in the bottom half of the inning loading the bases. Parshall responded by striking out three batters to leave all three base runners stranded.
Penn State expanded upon its lead in the top of the second inning after loading the bases. Jones continued to stay hot driving in one after looping a single to left-center field. Finnegan kept the scoring going, driving in two when she doubled to deep center, and Lindmark singled to bring Finnegan home. Penn State led 5-0.
In the bottom half of the second inning, Parshall began to dominate, shaking off an error to keep the Ospreys quiet. Both teams had quiet third and fourth innings with no hits or runs as Parshall continued to mow down the UNF lineup. A contested call at first base to end the fifth inning for the Ospreys kept Parshall's no-hit bid alive.
Lexie Black (Omaha, Neb.) led off the sixth inning with a double down the left field line, but was stranded on base.
In the bottom half of the sixth inning, Parshall retired one before giving up her first hit of the game, which ended up being UNF's only hit.
Parshall and the Nittany Lions were able to close the game out in the bottom of the seventh to end day one of the season 2-0.
UP NEXT
The Nittany Lions will have a quick turnaround Saturday morning as they continue the JU/UNF tournament. A 11:30 a.m. matchup with Bethune-Cookman will be the first game in a doubleheader as Penn State will then face host Jacksonville at 2 p.m.