UNIVERSITY PARK — The Penn State softball team beat Fairfield and Lafayette on Sunday, March 9 and completed a four-game sweep in the weekend’s Penn State Softball Invitational at the Softball Park and Beard Field.
The Lions began the day with a 9-7 win over Fairfield and then wrapped up the tournament with a five-inning, 13-0 shutout of Lafayette.
The two wins go along with victories over Canisius and Fairfield on Friday, March 7, and improved the Lions’ overall record to 12-11 for the season.
Penn State brought its bats on both days. The team scored a total of 57 runs in the four games, threw two shutouts and ended two of the games in five innings.
Against Lafayette in the finale on Sunday, March 9, Penn State scored five runs in the first inning, three in the third and four more in the fourth, all while pitchers Mady Volpe and Jiselle Hernandez were tossing a two-hit shutout.
The Lions knocked out 15 hits, led by Jenna Nelson with three and Michela Barbanente, Macy Chamberlin and Meagan Ricks with two each.
Barbanente also blasted two home runs and knocked in six runs.
Volpe and Hernandez each gave up a single in the game while Volpe started and threw three innings and Hernandez finished up the last two.
It was the Lions’ 12th win and fifth in a row.
Earlier in the day, the Lions took on a much more determined Fairfield team than the one they saw in Friday’s 23-0 blowout.
This time, Fairfield took two early leads before Penn State scored a four-spot in the third inning and then took a 9-5 lead after two more runs in the sixth.
Fairfield did close the Penn State lead to two runs in the seventh before pitcher Abigail Britton got the final outs.
The Lions finished with 13 hits and were led by Natalie Lieto and Kaylie Walters who each had three. Haylie Brunson and Chamberlain each knocked in two runs.
Chamberlain’s two run home run in the third inning gave the Lions a 7-5 lead in the third inning and then Brunson’s two-run double in the sixth padded the PSU lead to 9-5.
On Friday, March 7, the Lions began the tournament with a 12-4 win over Canisius in six innings and then swamped Fairfield in Game 2, 23-0 in five innings.
Against Canisius, Penn State erased a one-run deficit with seven runs in the fifth inning and then wrapped up the win with three more in the sixth.
Penn State had 12 hits overall, including two home runs by Brooke Klosowicz and one each by Natalie Lieto, Chamberlin and Brunson.
Volpe was the winning pitcher with two innings pitched and one hit, one walk and three strikeouts.
Next up was Fairfield, and the Lions were all over it with 22 hits and a 23-0 victory.
The Lions scored seven runs in the first two innings and then an incredible 16 in the fourth inning to close out the win.
Gianna Poletti, Lydia Coleman, Lieto, Madison Seidel and Nelson all had three hits in the game.
Britton was the winning pitcher with two innings of one-hit softball.
Penn State will now face Big Ten opponent Northwestern on Thursday, March 13, at Devon Park in Oklahoma City.
PENN STATE BASEBALL WINS FIRST BIG TEN SERIES WITH WIN OVER INDIANA
The Penn State baseball team improved to 11-2 overall on Sunday, March 9, with a 10-6 over visiting Indiana at Medlar Field.
The Nittany Lions tied the game at 2-2 in the fifth inning and then took control with seven runs in the seventh and eighth innings.
The win was the second in three games over the Hoosiers and it gave the Lions their first Big Ten series win of the season.
PSU had just seven hits in the game — Indiana had 11–but three RBIs by Joe Jaconski and two each by Paxton Kling and Bryce Molinaro made up the difference.
On the mound, Matt Morash threw four innings and gave up two runs on seven hits, and Chase Renner finished by getting the final two outs in the ninth.
On Friday, March 7, the two teams split a doubleheader with the Lions winning the opener, 15-9, and Indiana coming back to take Game 2, 17-6, in eight innings.
In the first game, Penn State collected 13 hits and broke open the game with 13 runs in the third and fourth innings.
Jack Porter had three hits and three RBIs while King Paxton smashed a fourth-inning grand slam that put the Lions ahead for good.
In Game 2, Indiana bolted out to a 12-1 lead and never looked back in a 17-6 win in eight innings.
Indiana collected 22 hits, while Penn State was led by Joe Jaconski with two hits and two RBIs.
Next up for the Lions will be two games against Georgetown in Tysons, Virginia.
