PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Penn State softball prepares for its final weekend of regular season competition this Friday through Sunday, May 3 through 5, as the Nittany Lions square off against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights on the road in a three-game series from the Rutgers Softball Complex. All three games of the weekend set will stream live to an audience of authenticated subscribers via B1G+ and the B1G+ app.
GAME INFORMATION
Penn State at Rutgers | Friday, May 3 | 3 p.m. ET | B1G+ | Live Stats
Penn State at Rutgers | Saturday, May 4 | 3 p.m. ET | B1G+ | Live Stats
Penn State at Rutgers | Sunday, May 5 | 1 p.m. ET | B1G+ | Live Stats
FOLLOW ALONG
All three games in Penn State's final Big Ten series of the 2024 regular season against Rutgers will be streamed live to a worldwide audience of authenticated subscribers via B1G+, the official streaming service of the Big Ten Conference. For links to view all three contests, visit the Penn State softball schedule page at GoPSUsports.com or click the links above. Live stats provided by Rutgers University and StatBroadcast are available at the Penn State softball schedule webpage and the links above.
QUICK HITS
The Nittany Lions enter the final regularly scheduled week of the 2024 season with an opportunity to secure its second first-round bye in the Big Ten Tournament in program history in addition to booking a .500-or-better record in B1G play in three consecutive years for the first time ever. The Blue & White have already secured a spot in the 2024 B1G Tournament, securing their third consecutive trip to the postseason under the direction of fourth-year head coach Clarisa Crowell.
On the field, Penn State is led by senior infielder Kaitlyn Morrison's career-best .338 overall batting average. Senior catcher Gaby Garcia paces the squad in RBI, while junior utility Maddie Gordon and Garcia became the 13th and 14th women, respectively, to notch at least 10 home runs in a single season in Penn State history. In the circle, freshman pitcher Bridget Nemeth continues to impress, leading the Big Ten Conference in wins with a 21-5 individual record in addition to a league-best 4.74 strikeout-to-walk ratio in a B1G-leading 169.2 innings of work through this point in her rookie campaign.
STARTLING THE SCARLET KNIGHTS
Led by eighth-year head coach Kristen Butler, the Rutgers Scarlet Knights prepare for their final series of the 2024 season boasting a 31-20 overall record in addition to a 12-8 mark against Big Ten competitors, good enough for the third-best record in the league. Rutgers is in the midst of a program-defining turnaround, securing back-to-back 30-win seasons following last weekend's series victory over Michigan State. The Scarlet Knights have won a program-record five Big Ten series through their first six opportunities, downing Ohio State, Purdue, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan State with a doubleheader sweep of Maryland. Senior utility Morgan Smith has been one of the most dominant individual athletes in the B1G in 2024, leading the B1G in home runs (19), RBI (65) and RBI per game (1.27) while also spending 126.2 innings in the circle for the Scarlet Knights. Staff ace Mattie Boyd has thrown 165.2 innings and leads the team with a 2.32 ERA coupled with 139 strikeouts against just 63 walks in her fifth season.
STORY OF THE SERIES
In a competitive all-time series spanning multiple conference realignments, Penn State boasts a 39-28 record against Rutgers since the first meeting of the two programs in softball in 1980. PSU and Rutgers first squared off as mutual members of the Atlantic 10 Conference before PSU departed for the B1G ahead of the 1991-92 academic year. The Nittany Lions and Scarlet Knights gear up for their 26th, 27th and 28th matchups since both programs renewed their conference rivalry in 2014-15. The Blue & White have established recent dominance over Rutgers since the arrival of head coach Clarisa Crowell in the 2021 spring season, with PSU logging an 8-2 record in the last 10 meetings. Penn State recorded a three-game series sweep of the Scarlet Knights at Nittany Lion Softball Park a year ago, with a Maddie Gordon grand slam putting a punctuation mark on the set in an 8-3 win on Sunday, April 16.
BYE ON THE LINE
Entering the final weekend of the Big Ten season, the Northwestern Wildcats and Michigan Wolverines sit atop the league table with both teams having the opportunity to clinch the B1G regular season title in their respective series this weekend. Penn State joins seven other teams in contention for a first-round bye in the league's postseason tournament next week in Iowa City. The Blue & White currently stand tied for sixth in the league alongside Indiana and Purdue with 11-9 records. Rutgers, Minnesota, Nebraska and Ohio State each remain in mathematical contention for a top-four seed in the B1G Tournament in 2024. PSU seeks its first bye in the first round of the league's postseason evenet since the 2016 team earned the No. 4 seed and reached the semifinals at Nittany Lion Softball Park and Beard Field.
FOLLOW THE NITTANY LIONS
Visit GoPSUSports.com for more information on Penn State softball. Fans can keep up to date with the Nittany Lion softball team on Facebook at /pennstatesoftball as well as Instagram and X @PennStateSB.
