Penn State Softball opens up Big Ten play against Indiana

This weekend the Nittany Lions will begin their Big Ten schedule with a three-game series against the Indiana Hoosiers.

The Nittany Lions are currently on a five-game win streak after sweeping the Penn State Invitational with wins against Lehigh, Cornell, Canisius and Binghamton.

The season so far has been quite streaky for Penn State, getting off to a blazing 15-1 start, with an eight-game win streak and a five-game win streak sandwiched by a single loss.

To start the season, they played in the Paradis Classic and The Spring Games tournaments in Florida before traveling to Virginia and Texas for the Liberty Softball Classic and Longhorn Invitational.

While in Texas, the Nittany Lions suffered five straight losses at the hands of Texas, Baylor and a three-game sweep by Texas State.

The Nittany Lions are 1-2 this season versus ranked opponents, beating No.16 Arkansas and losing to the aforementioned No.19 Baylor and second-ranked Texas.

Six Nittany Lions have tallied at least 20 hits this season led by Emily Maddock and Maddie Gordon who are both batting .354.

The front end of the lineup for the Nittany Lions is off to a blazing start, with leadoff hitter Kaitlyn Morrison having an astounding 1.145 OPS through the first 26 games.

Catcher Gaby Garcia has reached base safely in half her at-bats, but unfortunately for her, the reason for such a high OBP is partly because she has been hit by nine pitches, accounting for nearly half of the team's total this season (19).

Bridget Nemeth has been nearly impenetrable with a 10-0 record, 1.03 ERA and 0.95 WHIP in 61 innings pitched, followed by Mady Volpe (6-3) with a 3.81 ERA and 1.49 WHIP through 64.1 innings, and they both have 69 strikeouts.

As for the Hoosiers, Aly VanBrandt and Taylor Minnick are leading the charge in terms of average, both batting over .400, but Indiana has six batters currently with an OPS over 1.000, so clearly it's not just one or two players carrying the load in terms of offensive production.

They are third in the nation with 76 stolen bases, so look for that to be a possible game-changing factor in this series, as Penn State has allowed 21-26 stolen base attempts so far.

Brianna Copeland is a phenomenal two-way player, leading the team in pitching and offensive stats such as ERA (1.62), pitching wins (11), games started (11), strikeouts (83) and innings pitched (73.2). She also leads the team in both stolen bases(12) and stolen base attempts (15).

Sophie Kleiman and Heather Johnson will likely start games two and three of the series if Copeland isn't ready to pitch again in time for game three. Kleiman has pitched 59.2 innings across 19 games this season starting in ten, and has a record of 7-1 with a 1.90 ERA and a 1.31 WHIP.

Johnson has pitched 29 innings this season across six starts and 13 appearances with a 4.10 ERA and 1.62 WHIP.

Macy Montgomery has been a bullpen relief option for the Hoosiers, allowing only six earned runs in 21 innings pitched with 26 strikeouts.

The Hoosiers are 22-6 this season, and 3-4 on the road but have lost their last two games. The Nittany Lions are 20-6, and are unbeaten at Beard Field so far this season.

Indiana as a team leads the Big Ten in batting average (.310) and is second in ERA (2.13), while Penn State ranks fourth in batting average (.303) and eighth in ERA (3.32) in the Big Ten.

While the Nittany Lions are the hotter team on paper, both of these teams have shown their offensive potency so far and should be considered early favorites in the Big 10 this season.

Carson Schuler is a third-year majoring in broadcast journalism, to contact him please email cts5357@psu.edu.