The spring sports season is winding down at University Park.
Graduation was this past weekend and there isn’t much news coming out about the football team. Both Anthony Scirrotto and Chris Baker are still awaiting their trial dates for their involvement in a fight on April 1. In this edition of Morelli OnLion, we’ll take a look at the Penn State baseball and softball teams and talk a little women’s basketball.
Off we go.
(Baseball coach Robbie Wine. Photo courtesy of Blue Whie Illustrated)
Lions Crack Buckeyes
The Penn State baseball team ended its season with a 3-2 loss to Ohio State on Sunday afternoon at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park. The Nittany Lions end their season with a 28-24 record and a 20-10 record in the Big Ten.
But the big news came on Saturday, when Moshannon Valley graduate Paul Hawkins had another stellar outing to remain unbeaten this season. He pitched the second game of a doubleheader, a 3-2 Nittany Lion win.
In five innings of work, Hawkins surrendered five hits. He allowed two runs, one of which was earned. He didn’t walk a batter and didn’t strike out any.
For the season, Hawkins is 4-0 with a 3.28 ERA. He’s pitched 35 2/3 innings and given up 34 hits. He’s allowed 16 runs, 13 of which have been earned.
Another local product, Bellefonte native Seth Whitehill, has been coming on strong lately. He’s 5-5, but has been pitching well as of late.
With the regular season in the books, the Lions turn their attention to the Big Ten Tournament, which begins on Wednesday. Penn State, the No. 3 seed, will take on No. 6 seed Ohio State in Ann Arbor, Mich.
First pitch is set for 3:35 p.m.
(Softball player Esparaza. Photo courtesy of Blue White Illustrated)
Softball Season Ends
The Penn State women’s softball team saw its season end on Saturday with a 1-0 loss to North Carolina State in the NCAA Tournament.
Wolfpack pitcher Abbie Sims had a no-hitter going through six innings until Penn State’s Jen Acunto broke it up with a single.
But the Lions couldn’t get a run across to tie the game. They finished the season with a 26-25 record.
(Women’s Basketball Player Tyra Grant. Photo courtesy of Blue White Illustrated)
Lady Lions React
It’s been almost a month since Coquese Washington was introduced as head coach of the women’s basketball team.
On that afternoon, you could feel the sense of relief in the room.
After former coach Rene Portland resigned, current members of the Lady Lions were under a gag order. In short, they were told not to speak with members of the media.
But after Washington was introduced as head coach, the gag order was lifted — and the players spoke out.
Kam Gissendanner, who was on the search committee, said that she was impressed with Washington’s resume right out of the gate.
“She won a championship in the WNBA and she played at Notre Dame with a great tradition,” Gissendanner said. “She had everything we wanted in a head coach.”
Washington, who was the associate head coach under Muffet McGraw at Notre Dame, toured the Bryce Jordan Center when the Irish came to Happy Valley last season.
Tyra Grant, the freshman standout who admittedly was extremely close with Portland, said that she is excited to be part of Penn State’s new chapter.
“She is a great coach. From being an associate head coach at Notre Dame, she played in the WNBA for six years. Who wouldn’t want to say their coach played in the WNBA? She is a great person and I am ready to take on whatever she has to offer,” Grant said.
Question For Curley
I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Penn State athletic director Tim Curley for an hour-long interview.
Each week in Morelli OnLion, I’ll pick out a question and give you the AD’s answer in its entirety.
This week’s question focuses on the facilities at University Park.
CM: You’ve built the baseball stadium, added the wrestling facility and expanded the Blue Course. Are there any other athletics projects in the works?
TC: Right now we’ve been planning, or doing a lot of planning, on future capital projects. There’s a couple that we’re focused on. One would be the softball stadium we want to build, and I think that’ll be the next one up. For our golf program, we’re looking for a locker room/clubhouse out at the Blue Course. We just got a major gift for that so that project will continue to move forward.
We’re also looking into an addition to the indoor tennis complex. We only have four tennis courts and we need four more, and so we’re looking at that project very closely.
Our natatorium, we’re having very serious discussions on the expansion of our natatorium. We have a 25-meter pool right now. We need a 50-meter pool and a 10-meter diving well. So, we really need to get our swimming program a new facility.
The soccer field, Jeffrey Field, while we have a beautiful field and great stands, we don’t have a permanent locker room or permanent restrooms for fans, we don’t have permanent concessions, and so we need to build up that infrastructure of that stadium. So, we’re spending a lot of time on that.
Once that will happen, hopefully after the football season’s last game, is we’re going to take the old baseball field and turn that into a soccer practice complex. After the Purdue game we’ll start putting in some drainage fields and some lights, and give our men and women’s soccer programs a nice practice complex there. So that will happen when the season’s over.
Then we’re going to continue to look at student fitness opportunities. We’re looking at a number of opportunities there for continual growth. Our student fitness programs are just bulging at the seams even as we add additional fitness facilities. The Rec Hall facilities turned out to be a grand slam.
It’s been well-received, it’s operating at full-maximum, so we want to come up here on the eastern edge over here to find a place to put a fitness facility.
Well, that’s it for another week. If there’s something you’d like to see in an upcoming edition of Morelli OnLion, shoot an e-mail to morellionlion@gmail.com