Lamont Furnace, PA. – The Penn State Greater Allegheny Softball team (0-4, 0-4) played the second half of their doubleheader with Penn State Fayette (5-8, 4-0) on Wednesday and were swept by scores of 9-1 and 15-0. Game one saw PSUGA stay right in the thick of things to the end, while game two just got away from them as things snowballed and led to them getting swept in the season series against Fayette.
After Fayette jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning of game one, Holly George (Homer City, PA./Homer-Center HS) settled down keeping them off the board in the second and her team came to the plate down by three in the third. PSUGA was looking to respond with their first run of the year after being shutout in their first two games.
Ivy Mervis (Pittsburgh, PA./Allderdice HS) would start things off with a single to right field to lead off the inning. Two batters later, PSUGA would break through for their first run of 2019 when Tara Love (Chandler, AZ./Campo Verde HS) lined an RBI double to the right center-field gap scoring Mervis and cutting the Fayette lead to 3-1. However, Love was thrown out trying to get to third on the play and a ground out would end the threat.
Fayette would go on to score single runs in the third and fourth innings to extend their lead to 5-1 after five innings of play. They made it 6-1 after a walk and two singles to with one out in the top of the sixth and then loaded the bases two batters later on a walk. That is when Fayette’s Aubrey Yates came to the plate and cleared the bases with a double enacting the mercy rule and giving Fayette the 9-1 win in game one.
PSUGA came out in game two and threatened to take an early lead after three walks loaded the bases with two outs in the top of the first. However, a strikeout ended the threat and sent Savanna Simm (West Mifflin, PA./West Mifflin HS) to the mound for her first start for PSUGA since the 2017 season.
After getting a ground out to start things, a walk and a single came before a strikeout to give Fayette two on and two out in the bottom half. However, the error bug struck again as Fayette was able to push their first run across and an RBI double by Fayette’s Lauren Mastowski got her team out to a 3-0 lead after one. Fayette would have their biggest inning in the bottom of the 2nd when they scored nine runs, including two RBI doubles, that put them ahead for good as they rolled to a 15-0 win.
Love led the way offensively combining to go 1-2 with an RBI and two walks on the day as she drove in her first RBI of the 2019 season. Simm added a 2-4 day at the plate while Mervis finished 1-4 with a run scored. George improved in her second start of the season in game one lasting 4.2 innings giving up nine hits and nine runs, six earned, while walking four and striking out two.
PSUGA now moves past their series with Fayette and looks ahead as they continue their Penn State University Athletic Conference schedule. They continue to get better at the plate and will take some of that offensive success into the weekend as they go on the road for two straight games.
It all starts with a doubleheader against PSU-DuBois on Friday, March 29th, with first pitch scheduled for 8 p.m. followed by the second game at 6 p.m. The games will be played at the DuBois City Park Softball field just off of the PSU-DuBois main campus.
