Penn State Swept by St. Francis

Story posted April 18, 2018 in CommRadio, Sports by Joe Skinner

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Penn State Nittany Lions (7-32, 3-11 B1G) met the St. Francis University Red Flash (26-17, 6-0 NEC) for a midweek doubleheader on Wednesday.  The Red Flash swept the two games, winning the first game 8-2 and the second game 9-1 in five innings.

“I tip my hat to St. Francis, [I’m] really disappointed in tonight,” Penn State head coach Amanda Lehotak said.  “St. Francis just flat out beat us, in my opinion, every aspect of the game.”

In the first game, Penn State was able to pick up the lead in the first inning.  Junior Tori Dubois was able to steal home to grab the first run of the game.  However, St. Francis responded loudly with a grand slam off the bat of junior Cheyenne McKee over the left-center field wall. 

St. Francis extended the lead in the third with a two-RBI base hit from junior Kassidy Troxell.  McKee led the team offensively in game one with two hits and four RBIs. 

“We didn’t have one big hit, and in the first game, I think we only had one really hard hit,” Lehotak said.  “I felt good about our preparation yesterday, I felt good about our preparation today...but we’re not doing it on gameday right now and we need to figure it out.”

The starter for the Red Flash shut down the Nittany Lions from the start.  Sophomore Abby Trahan tossed a complete game with seven strikeouts, six hits, and two earned runs in the win.  On the other side, Penn State sophomore Madey Smith was pulled after 1.1 innings.  She gave up two runs, two walks, and only faced seven batters in a loss.

“[Trahan] did what she always does and she goes right after you,” Lehotak said.

Senior Jessica Cummings pitched in relief of Smith, and finished the game with 5.2 innings pitched, gave up six hits, five earned runs, three walks, and notched three strikeouts.

In the second game, Madison Schaffer started in the circle.  The junior went 3.1 innings, gave up eight hits, eight earned runs, and walked four in the loss.  Senior Ashton Mensinger relieved Shaffer in the third inning and finished the last 1.2 innings with two hits and one earned run.  For St. Francis, Trahan took the circle for her second straight start and pitched a complete five innings with one earned run, two walks, and three strikeouts in the win.

“We just have to focus on Indiana, to be honest, we can’t look back on these games because obviously, they weren’t what we wanted,” senior Gianna Arrizurieta said. 

Offensively, the Red Flash started off the scoring in the second with a double from sophomore Taylor Hoover and a two-RBI base hit from McKee.  Hoover went a perfect 3-3 from the plate with two doubles and two RBIs in the game.  Sophomore Kennedy Legg led the Nittany Lions at the plate with a 2-2 second game and a solo home run in the second inning.

A five-run fourth inning sealed the game for the Red Flash as they were able to put up five runs on five hits, capped off by a Hoover’s second double of the game.  With the mercy-rule in effect, St. Francis finished off the 9-1 win and sweep of the doubleheader.

Penn State travels for a three-game series in Bloomington to take on Indiana this weekend, before returning for a five-game homestand to finish off the home schedule against Bucknell and Illinois.  St. Francis puts their undefeated conference record on the line for two weekend doubleheaders against Central Connecticut State and Bryant.

 

 

Joe Skinner is a freshman majoring in broadcast journalism.  To contact him, email jcs6108@psu.edu.