Game Grades: Penn State Softball vs. Ohio State
Home sweet home – or is it?
The Nittany Lions were back at Beard Field after two unsuccessful weekends on the road. It was more of the same on Tuesday, after Penn State dropped both games to Ohio State in its doubleheader.
Let’s look at how the blue and white played, despite the pair of losses:
Batting: C+
The Nittany Lions had good contact at the plate, but struggled to score runs in their back-to-back games.
Cassie Lindmark was excellent in the box, notching a thrilling double and going 2-for-4 in her at bats. Even Liana Jones got in on the action with a homerun in the first matchup. Penn State also tallied 17 stunning hits in the doubleheader opposed to the Buckeyes’ 12
Nonetheless, these drives are essentially meaningless if they don’t score runs.
The hits were good and the crowd’s energy fed off of balls sent to the warning track, yet the execution with ducks on the pond was a big downfall.
Penn State left a combined 18 runners on base over the two games who could very much have changed the entire dynamic of the day if they reached home plate.
An improvement in execution in the box will prevent stranded players on the diamond and lead to blue and white success in Big Ten play.
Fielding: C
The fielding was solid. Period.
The infield did its job as well as the outfield. Each player did her job, but was nothing spectacular.
Penn State lacked its flair and grittiness that we have seen in the past games, forcing other top teams into extra inning thrillers.
They can’t be upset with their performance because the Nittany Lions only tallied one error on the day, while the Buckeyes had triple that.
The blue and white showed up and held a heavy hitting team to minimal numbers, despite consecutive losses. If it plays with its usual scrappiness, Penn State can look for a boost on defense.
Pitching: B-
It was a pitchers duel for a while on Tuesday. Ace Bailey Parshall and Kylee Lingenfelter kept Ohio State’s hot bats relatively cool in the competitive matchup.
Despite the solid few innings, the offense couldn’t score a run, so the growing pressure fell directly on the pitching staff.
Parshall looked weathered halfway through the first battle as she was replaced by Vanessa Oatley. It seemed to become a carousel of pitchers as Parshall finished the evening as the second game’s closer.
Penn State is among the top Big Ten schools in pitching with a well-developed staff with aggressive strides from the circle, but the constant reliance on Parshall tears down the program itself and quite literally, the super senior’s arm.
We’ve seen the Nittany Lions come out hot both offensively and defensively, but without another Parshall-like pitcher, they can expect more games handed to their opponent.
Uniforms: A-
Now, the Nittany Lions came up empty in the win column, but at least they did it in style.
Penn State was iced out in its clean, white uniforms while rival Ohio State contrasted in its sharp gray and scarlet red, illustrating the intensity between the Big Ten powerhouses.
Now, the game did not end in those pure white unis – the Nittany Lions were laying out on the dirt, sliding into bases and making grabs in the outfield.
Meghan Strange is a sophomore majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact her email mgs5649@psu.edu.
