McKeesport, PA. – The Penn State Greater Allegheny Athletics Department announced their Athletes of the Week in their weekly newsletter on Wednesday night and two strong performances at the plate won out. Softball’s Savanna Simm (West Mifflin, PA./West Mifflin HS) and Baseball’s Dylan Ernst (McKeesport, Pa./McKeesport HS) were named this week’s winners after helping their teas continue to improve on the offensive side of the ball.
Both teams hit a little bit of a struggle in their series against PSU-Mont Alto but the offenses continued to put up good numbers for both teams. The softball team combined to score 20 runs in their four-game series while the Baseball team has scored 11 runs in their last four ball games.
Simm got her bat going after a slow start in her team’s series with Mont Alto powering her team to their best offensive performance of the season. In the series, Simm went 7-15 (.467) with a team high six RBI a walk and a stolen base. Her biggest performance came in the first game of Sunday’s doubleheader when she went a perfect 4-4 and reached base in all five plate appearances driving in four of her teams 11 runs in what would be a 16-11 loss. It was a career day, and one that PSUGA needed heading down the stretch.
With the outburst, Simm upped her season average to .345 and now sits in second on the team in batting average while being tied for the team lead with six RBI. She is in her second season with the program after taking two years off from 2017 to 2018 and now is providing a spark from the middle of the batting order.
Ernst had a similarly strong week for the PSUGA Baseball team coming through big at crucial times. He is currently sporting a 16-game on base streak and leads the team hitting .491 through the first 20 games of the season. He is tied for first on the team with 15 RBI and has been a main stay in the clean-up spot for coach Kenny Creehan and his team this season.
In the series with PSU-Mont Alto, Ernst went 5-9 (.556) with two RBI leading the way for the offense. His best performance came in Sunday’s walk-off win when he went 3-4 and drove in two of his team’s four runs helping them salvage a game in the series. Ernst has been a leader in each of his four seasons with the team and is the only player on this year’s team who was here the last time PSUGA won a Penn State University Athletic Conference Championship.
With the season coming down to it’s final two weeks, things are heating up as the PSUAC tournament draws near. For baseball, it is time to chase down a playoff spot while softball looks to continue to improve and work on getting better for seasons to come.
Both teams are back in action on Friday when they start their series with PSU-Beaver with first pitch for softball scheduled for 2 p.m. while baseball starts at 3 p.m. The games will be played at No-Offseason Sports in Tarentum, PA. located at 1590 Saxonburg Boulevard.
