PA State College — At Nittany Lion Softball Park on Saturday afternoon, April 27, the University of Michigan softball team overcame an early deficit and used a late offensive surge to defeat Penn State 14-3 in six innings. The victory gave the Wolverines their fifth Big Ten Conference series victory.
With 15 hits, including three doubles and three home runs, Michigan tied the season high and had multiple-hit performances from six different players. In the middle of the order, rookie outfielders Ella Stephenson and Jenissa Conway each recorded two hits, three runs, and two RBI, while senior first baseman Keke Tholl went 3-for-3 with two runs and an RBI. Lilly Vallimont, a sophomore and rookie, had a career-high four RBI, the largest coming from a three-run home ball .
Hannah George, a right-handed graduate student, went on to win six of the Wolverines’ ten games after entering the game in relief in the second and giving up just one run in the last 4.2 innings on three hits and a walk.
With a two-out, two-run home run in the opening stanza, PSU took the lead early. However, the Wolverines quickly responded, taking the lead — permanently — in the following half inning. After loading the bases and scoring one run on a sacrifice fly, Ella McVey, a junior shortstop, scored two runs with a single down the left-field line that went past the left fielder for PSU. The winning run in yesterday’s series opener was likewise scored by McVey.
With one out in the fifth, Conway hammered a no-doubt two-run home run to straightaway center field, and the Wolverines advanced into run-rule territory with their seventh run in the sixth. After loading the bases with two singles and a walk, Michigan scored runs in its next four at-bats—all before the first out. Stephenson launched a two-run double off the right-field wall, her second two-bagger of the game, after Tholl looped an RBI single into shallow center. After a fielding error allowed U-M to score another run, Vallimont launched her fifth home run of the season, a three-run line drive over the left-center field wall.
With an 11-run lead going into the bottom of the sixth, George ended the game early by grounding out the last three Nittany Lion hitters on only six pitches.
At Nittany Lion Softball Park, Michigan (36-14, 16-3 Big Ten) will play Penn State in the weekend series finale starting at 1 p.m. on Sunday, April 28.
