OKLAHOMA CITY – The Penn State softball team dropped a pair of games in Big Ten Conference competition Saturday, with the Nittany Lions experiencing a 10-2 setback to the Northwestern Wildcats in five innings before falling by a narrow 8-7 margin to the Minnesota Golden Gophers in the nightcap from Devon Park, the home of the Women’s College World Series.
The Nittany Lion offense combined to register 13 hits and tally nine runs, amassing a pair of homers and nine combined RBI on the day. Freshman left fielder Natalie Lieto hit .500 on Saturday, going 3-for-6 overall with a run scored and a walk drawn. Sophomore shortstop Kaylie Walters was a catalyst for PSU’s comeback attempt in the second game of the day against Minnesota, finishing the day 1-for-2 with two runs scored, an RBI, pair of walks and a stolen base to round out an all-around impressive day of work. Fifth year first baseman Meagan Ricks went 2-for-6 across both games and tallied a pair of runs scored, highlighted by an emphatic three-run bomb that marked her third dinger of 2025. Senior utility Maddie Gordon also contributed a home run on the day, marking her seventh of the season to lead all Penn State batters. Finally, sophomore infielder Brooke Klosowicz extended her reached base streak to 25 games after reaching safely in both contests. The Johnsburg, Illinois, native has reached base in every game since PSU’s second contest of the season against Texas Tech on the first day of the 2025 campaign, marking one of the longest stretches of its kind in Division I.
In the pitcher’s circle, seniors Mady Volpe and Lydia Spalding both appeared in both games, with Volpe saddled with both losses as Saturday’s pitcher of record. Volpe amassed 7.0 innings pitched against the Wildcats and Golden Gophers, scattering nine hits with seven runs allowed and just four going in the scorebook as earned. Freshman right-hander Abigail Britton booked the start in game two and tossed 3.0 innings with four hits and two strikeouts. Rounding out Penn State’s day in the circle was sophomore utility Jiselle Hernandez, who logged 0.1 innings and surrendered a single unearned run. Defensively, Penn State secured its 10th error-free game of the 2025 season and first since playing a perfect defensive game against Lafayette on March 9. The Nittany Lions are now 6-4 in contests when committing zero errors during the 2025 campaign.
After a grueling weekend opener on Thursday night against the Wildcats, Penn State looked to find an edge on their opponents from Chicagoland in the top of the first inning on Saturday. The Blue & White answered the call with an emphatic opening to the contest, logging a pair of runs to take an early 2-0 edge. After a pair of flyouts to right field to lead off the visitor’s half of the first, Klosowicz extended her reached-base streak to 24 consecutive games by drawing a walk on five pitches. Gordon stepped up to the plate in the next at-bat and delivered a no-doubt homer to the opposite field in right, providing the Blue & White with an early two-run advantage. Northwestern managed a one-run answer in the home half, but PSU preserved its lead through an inning and a half. Unfortunately for PSU, the Wildcats would take a lead with a four-run frame in the second, ultimately closing the game out by amassing 10 unanswered runs to finalize the 10-2 result in five innings of play.
Despite Minnesota getting out to a trying 7-1 advantage through four and a half innings of play in the second game of the day, Penn State’s bats remained resilient and embarked on a valiant comeback attempt. Walters got the Penn State dugout and offense fired up by drawing a leadoff walk, and Lieto sent a single to left field to place a pair of Nittany Lions on the basepath. After a flyout bumped Walters to third base, Klosowicz extended her reached-base streak and knocked in a run with an RBI single, advancing to second on the Golden Gopher throw home that failed to stop Walters. Gordon reached on a fielder’s choice to the Minnesota shortstop, scoring Lieto and moving Klosowicz to third. Gordon proceeded to steal second, but Ricks made that a moot point with an emphatic three-run homer over the fence in right center that made it a one-run ballgame. A sac fly to left by Klosowicz with the bases loaded in the bottom of the sixth deadlocked the game, but a one-run reply by Minnesota in the seventh could not be overcome as the Golden Gophers came away with the 8-7 win in the nightcap.
At the conclusion of Saturday’s contests in America’s heartland, the Nittany Lions moved to 12-14 overall and 0-3 in Big Ten play through the team’s first trio of neutral site opportunities in central Oklahoma. Northwestern rose to 12-9 through their Saturday doubleheader in OKC, including an unbeaten 3-0 start to Big Ten action, while Minnesota booked a split against Michigan State and PSU to move to 13-14 overall and 2-1 in the B1G. After the 71st all-time meeting with the Wildcats, NU improved to 56-15 against Penn State while Minnesota improved to 50-21 against the Blue & White after the 71st meeting in that series.