The Lady Lions Have Been Swinging Through the Storm This Weekend
Penn State Beaver fought with grit and flashes of brilliance, but ultimately fell short against Penn State Mont Alto in a hard-fought softball matchup.
Penn State Beaver dropped a 6–2 decision at Penn State Mont Alto on April 11, 2026, in a game that swung early and never fully turned back. Mont Alto struck first and built separation with a big second inning, then answered Beaver's lone rally in the fifth to close the door. Beaver collected six hits and pushed across two runs, but defensive miscues and free baserunners proved costly as Mont Alto capitalized on opportunities and controlled the pace from the circle.
Inning by inning, the tone was set immediately: Mont Alto plated an unearned run in the first, then broke it open in the second with a two-run double and an additional run coming home on a wild pitch to make it 4–0. The middle frames (third and fourth) were scoreless as Beaver's Kierstyn Mays settled in and Mont Alto's Kira Weikert kept Beaver quiet. Beaver finally broke through in the fifth, using a run-scoring single from Jaiden Patterson and an RBI walk drawn by Mays to cut the deficit to 4–2, but Mont Alto responded in the bottom half with an RBI double and another run scoring on a wild pitch to restore a four-run cushion at 6–2. The sixth and seventh passed without scoring, with Weikert finishing the complete game and Mont Alto's defense turning a key double play to help preserve the lead.
Beaver was led at the plate by Patterson and Mays, while Haley Cook and Reese Riordan were the two runners who came around to score during the fifth-inning push. In the circle, Mays went the distance for Beaver, while Weikert earned the win with a complete-game effort for Mont Alto. The difference came down to execution in high-leverage moments. Mont Alto's extra-base hits and Beaver's errors and wild pitches created the separation that Beaver couldn't fully erase. In the end, Beaver showed fight with its fifth-inning rally, but Mont Alto's early burst and immediate answer secured the 6–2 final.
Game 2:
Penn State Beaver dropped an 11–3 decision at Penn State Mont Alto on Saturday afternoon, April 11, 2026. The game was scoreless through the first inning, but Beaver couldn't slow Mont Alto's big second and fourth innings, and the hosts pulled away late despite Beaver scratching across runs in the fourth and fifth.
The first inning passed quietly with no scoring, setting up an early pitchers' duel. In the second, Mont Alto broke through with a three-run frame to take control, and Beaver went to the middle innings trailing 3–0. Beaver answered in the fourth when Reese Riordan ripped a two-run double to cut the deficit to 3–2, but Mont Alto immediately responded with a five-run bottom of the fourth to push the game out of reach at 8–2. Beaver added one in the fifth on Kierstyn Mays' RBI groundout, yet Mont Alto tacked on three more in the bottom half to end it at 11–3. Penn State Beaver finished with 3 runs on 6 hits and committed no errors. Riordan led the offense with a two-run double, while Mays drove in a run and Jaiden Patterson reached base twice (single and walk) and scored. In the circle, Reza Benson worked 2.2 innings, and Mackenzie Boyd took the loss in relief (0–1), as Beaver allowed 11 runs over 4.1 innings.
Beaver showed fight by closing within a run in the fourth, but Mont Alto's immediate five-run response flipped the game decisively, and the late three-run fifth sealed it. Penn State Beaver will look to tighten up run prevention in the middle innings and build on the timely extra-base hit from Riordan as they move forward. They look to overcome this in the coming weeks as the conference starts to heat up. The team will take the field again on Tuesday, April 14th at 2 pm and 4 pm when they take on Penn State DuBois at home. For all things Penn State Beaver Softball, check out beaverathletics.com!