Penn State softball sweeps the Terps

UNIVERSITY PARK — Penn State averaged six runs per game in their three-game series sweep over the Maryland Terrapins April 15 through April 17.

The Nittany Lions softball program improved their overall record to 24-17 on the regular season and upped their home record to 10-3, which is good for third-best in the Big Ten. Penn State is third overall in the Big Ten Softball standings.

Game one of the three-game series was a slugfest of sorts, as Penn State won the series-opener 9-6 on April 15.

Marlaina Laubach (9-8) went the distance, tossing 4 2/3 innings allowing three runs on six hits and striking out two in earning the victory.

The Nittany Lions offense put up four spots in the third and fourth innings.

Centerfielder Lexi Knief had a productive game, finishing the afternoon 2-for-4 with two runs scored. Knief broke the 1-1 tie in the third with a go-ahead 2-run single in the third, plating third baseman Shelby Miller and leftfielder Macy Jones, while giving Penn State a 3-1 lead.

In the fourth, Jones smashed a 2-run homer to right center to give Penn State a 7-2 lead. The Ashburn senior had a four-hit day with two RBIs and two runs scored.

The Nittany Lions, on the back of Alyssa VanDerveer, cruised to a 4-0 shutout of Maryland Saturday at Beard Field in game two.

VanDerveer hit a booming 2-run home run to right field in the first inning to give Penn State a 2-0 lead, which scored second baseman Molly Sorenson.

Vanderveer clubbed her ninth home run of the season and now has 40 RBIs on the season.

With the win, Penn State extended their home winning streak to four, completing a two-game doubleheader sweep of Bucknell on Wednesday (4-1 and 2-1 victories) and taking the first two games of this three-game series, 9-6 and 4-0, respectively.

Right fielder Erin Pond hit an RBI single to left field in the bottom of the third inning, scoring Shelby Miller from second to go up 3-0.

Some of the key plays that led up to the hit by Pond were an infield single by Miller to second, and an infield single by Knief, which allowed Miller to advance to second and into scoring position. Pond then stepped up to the plate, who came into the game hitting .351, hit an RBI single through the left side.

Miller hit an RBI single in the bottom of the fourth inning, which scored Macy Jones to give Penn State a 4-0 lead they would never relinquish.

The winning pitcher in the game was Jessica Cummings, who pitched four innings and allowed three hits, one walk and no runs while adding two strikeouts.

Penn State head coach Amanda Lehotak praised her performance, saying that she had good off-speed stuff in the game.

“Jess did exactly what we needed her to do- we wanted her to go one time through the lineup. I think she almost went two times through the lineup, she went out and attacked them, threw off-speed and kept them off balance,” said Lehotak. “We knew we needed the off-speed today in order to stop them and I can’t say enough good things about Jess.”

Lehotak said it would be a difficult task to complete the three-game sweep of Maryland and acknowledged that her team needs to tighten up certain phases of their game, such as being smarter on the base paths, as her team gave away six outs on base running blunders. Lehotak also said that she calls Sunday games “Championship Sundays” because they are hard and conceded that it is hard to beat a team three times in a row.

“Sundays are hard; so we call it ‘Championship Sunday’ and we think Sunday is a mindset; it’s really hard to beat a team three times, so for us, there’s certain things we need to tighten up; our base running was not good enough today- we gave them three double plays, that has to be better when you give away a free six outs for free, so really tomorrow is about the mindset, you’re probably going to see a lot of pitchers coming to our side to try to attack them, so it’s about maintaining your cool, having good defense and having good pitching,” said Lehotak.

Penn State edged Maryland 5-3 in the third game of the Big Ten Conference three-game series, completing their second three-game series home sweep of the season.

The Nittany Lions will hit the road for their final road series of the regular season against Iowa from April 22 to April 24.