2024 • JUNIOR SEASON
Awards: Picked up Academic All-Big Ten accolades.
Season: Made 18 appearances and two starts on the season, both career-bests… Published a 1-0 individual record in addition to her first collegiate save… Recorded a 5.43 ERA in a career-high 29.2 innings of work… Struck out 10 opposing batters… Appeared in multiple games as a pinch runner, highlighted by an appearance late in the win over Arkansas.
vs. Arkansas (2/10): Scored the game-winning run on an Emily Maddock single to push PSU to its first nationally ranked win since 2022. Northwestern State (3/3): Tossed a season-high 5.0 innings, scattering four hits and allowing zero runs while adding a pair of strikeouts. Lehigh (3/14): Picked up her first collegiate save after entering the game to pitch the final 0.1 innings with a lead of less than three runs. Binghamton (3/17): Earned credit for the win after booking 3.1 innings with a season-high four K’s.
2023 • SOPHOMORE SEASON
Awards: Academic All-Big Ten
Season: Appeared in two games in the circle, tossing 3.1 innings with a 0.00 ERA…Allowed one hit and fanned one batter, publishing an opponent batting average of .091…Appeared in five contests as a pinch runner, scoring one run for PSU.
vs. Georgia Tech (2/25): Threw 1.1 innings in relief against the Yellow Jackets, logging her only strikeout of the season while tossing 18 pitches. at Northwestern (4/7): Published 2.0 innings of work in relief, surrendering just one hit in that span. Big Ten Tournament vs. Indiana (5/11): In her fifth pinch-running appearance of the season, she scored the game-tying run in the top of the sixth to force extras.
2022 • FRESHMAN SEASON
Season: Made 13 appearances and started one game in the circle…2-0 record on the season in 24 innings of work.
vs. Buffalo (2/19): Made fist career appearance and tallied first career strikeout in 1.1 innings. vs. Kennesaw St. (2/26): Pitched three innings and allowed one run earning first win. vs. UMass Lowell (3/19): Shut the door on UMass…striking out two in relief appearance. vs. Cornell (3/20): Started and pitched four innings striking out season-high four earning the win.
HIGH SCHOOL
Played high school softball at Austintown Fitch High School in Austintown, Ohio... Helped the Falcons to back-to-back sectional championships in 2018 and 2019... Led her squad to an AAC championship in 2019... Named AAC Player of the Year as freshman in 2018... Earned First Team AAC and Second Team All-District honors in 2018... Garnered First Team AAC honors and an All-Northeast Ohio honorable mention commendation as sophomore in 2019... Named team MVP in 2018 and brought home the same accolade once again in 2019... Broke freshman and sophomore strikeout records at Austintown Fitch... Also earned varsity letters in cross country during her high school career... Ranked No. 75 by Extra Innings Softball in her signing class... Handled her travel ball commitments with the Ohio Outlaws from 2016 to 2020, and wrapped up her club softball experience with the PA Strikers National Team under the direction of coach Camille Hayes.
PERSONAL
Born in the spring of 2003, Lydia Spalding is a native of Austintown, Ohio, and is the middle daughter of Becki and Mark Splading... She is one of six children, with an older brother named Samuel, an older sister named Carolina, a pair of younger brothers named Harrison and William, and a younger sister named Mary... Her mother, Becki, was a former track & field and cross country athlete at Youngstown State... She expects to graduate from the Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences in the spring of 2025 with a degree in turfgrass science... Spalding hopes to utilize that degree to one day become the head of groundskeepers and field operations for an MLB or NFL franchise.