No. 19 Softball Close Regular Season with 4-1 Win at Penn State – Ohio State Buckeyes
5/6/2002 12:00:00 AM | Softball
May 6, 2002
Box Score
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. – The No. 19 Ohio State softball team closed out its regular season schedule with a 4-1 victory over Penn State Sunday in State College, Pa., to keep its Big Ten championship hopes alive. Five minutes after their 51st victory of the year, the title went to Michigan after the Wolverines defeated Michigan State, 1-0, for the second day in a row. Katie Chain (Jr., North Canton, Ohio/Hoover) powered the Buckeye defense with seven solid innings of work in the circle while Anna Smith (Sr., Walnut, Calif./Diamond Bar) and Jennifer Link (Jr., Yorba Linda, Calif./Sonora) led the offense with 2-for-3 days at the plate. OSU, the No. 2 seed in the upcoming Big Ten tournament, raised its record to 51-10 overall and 16-4 in the conference while the Nittany Lions garnered fifth place and the No. 5 seed though their record slipped to 29-22 overall and 10-9 in the Big Ten.
Chain went the distance and scattered three hits while allowing one unearned run and striking out seven PSU batters to bring her season total to 189, the most in a single-season in OSU history. The previous mark was set by Chain a year ago at 182. Offensively, Smith’s two hits were the 233rd and 234th in her career to establish the new Buckeye program record previously held by Candace Kollen (1995-98).
PSU jumped to an early 1-0 lead, just as it had a day earlier. The first four Nittany Lions reached base with Mandy Nuxoll coming in to score on a bases-loaded error on the Buckeyes. OSU fought back immediately with a pair of its own runs. Link and Smith both singled to short and then stole the next base to give the runners their 27th and 38th swipes on the year, respectively. Smith’s stolen base is the new single-season record at OSU, bettering her previous standard of 37 set in 2000.
Wendy Allen (So., Moreno Valley, Calif./Moreno Valley) came to the plate with the runners at second and third and drove the Tina Skelly offering to right center to knock in both runs for OSU’s first lead in the two game series. From there, the Buckeyes were retired in order to end the inning to start a stretch of 12 put outs in a row by PSU. Chrissy Fowler (Sr., Utica, Ohio/Wright State) ended the skid in the fifth with a single up the middle. Fowler took second on a Sarah West (Sr., Galloway, Ohio/Hilliard Davidson) sacrifice bunt before taking third on a passed ball. After Breana Pozzi (So., Petaluma, Calif./Casa Grande) walked and pinch runner Meghan Rowlands (Fr., Hilliard, Ohio/Bishop Ready) stole second, Link singled to short by beating the throw to first. Rowlands was out on the play after trying to advance to third.
Link stole second and moved to third on Smith’s single to short while Fowler scored for a 3-1 lead. The final run was tallied after Smith stole second and Link advanced home on a passed ball two pitches later. The Nittany Lions had three base runners throughout the final six innings of play with two coming on fielding errors by the Buckeyes. After surrendering a single to Kelley Galigher in the sixth, Chain struck out the next three batters with two caught looking before a fly out to Fowler in left ended the contest.
The Buckeyes open Big Ten tournament play in Ann Arbor, Mich., as the No. 2 seed at 2:30 p.m. Thursday taking on the winner of No. 3 Iowa and No. 6 Illinois. No. 1 UM faces the winner of No. 4 Wisconsin and No. 5 Penn State at 5 p.m.
