McKeesport, Pa. – Things did not go the Penn State Greater Allegheny Softball team’s (0-2, 0-2) way when they opened up Penn State University Athletic Conference play against Penn State Fayette (3-8, 2-0) over the weekend. They fell in both halves of a Saturday doubleheader dropping the first game 19-0 before following it up with a 16-0 loss in the second game of the day.
Despite the looks of things on the scoreboard, there were many positives to take from the day as the team was playing their first game of 2019. One of those was the fact that despite the score, PSUGA never quit throughout the day. They fell behind early in both games and still kept fighting at the plate, fouling off some tough pitches and staying alive in key at bats.
One of the stars of the weekend was sophomore Alyssa Guzzie (Pittsburgh, PA./Fox Chapel HS) who combined to go 2-4 between the two games and put together good at bats at the top of the lineup. After hitting .377 last season, Guzzie will be looked at to be a catalyst at the top of the PSUGA order to help set up the run producers in the middle of the lineup in 2019.
All three of those run producers collected one hit over the weekend with Haley Snyder (Connelsville, PA./Connelsville HS), Sam Snashell (Buffalo, NY./Charter School for Applied Technology), and Holly George (Homer City, PA./Homer-Center HS) each putting together a 1-4 day for PSUGA. They started the biggest threat of the day for PSUGA in the second game after Snyder doubled to lead things off and Snashell walked to put runners at first and second with nobody out.
However, there is still a lot to clean up for the PSUGA softball team and they will get a chance to do just that as the series shifts to PSU-Fayette in a makeup from the game that was supposed to be played on March 22nd. PSUGA will be looking to slow down a potent PSU-Fayette offense that combined to score 35 runs on 36 hits in the doubleheader on Saturday.
After splitting the season series at two wins a piece last season, PSUGA would have to sweep Wednesday’s doubleheader in order to have the same fate as a season ago. PSUGA got better from the first game to the second game doubling their hit total, and they will try and take that growth into Wednesday as they continue their chase for a second straight PSUAC playoff berth.
First pitch for Wednesday’s doubleheader is scheduled for 2 p.m. with the second game following at 4 p.m. The games will be played at the softball field across from the gym on the campus of PSU-Fayette.
