The snow has melted, the dust has settled, and softball has returned for the 2026 spring season. Waynesburg University Yellow Jackets split the opening double header against Penn State Altoona Nittany Lions.  

The Yellow Jackets lost their first game 6-3.  

The Nittany Lions opened the scoring off fielding errors by Waynesburg. The score remained 1-0 till the fourth inning, when PSU Altoona took a 2-0 lead. 

Waynesburg, in the bottom of the fifth inning, took advantage of a lead-off error by Penn State Altoona to allow senior Kassidy Trimble to reach base.  

Senior Madie Cicero laid down a bunt to put runners on first and second for sophomore Riley Rohbeck to send a ball deep to center field for a bases clearing double to tie the game up at 2-2. 

Penn State Altoona led off the top of the sixth inning with a walk, which was driven in by a double. A strikeout and a single ended the day for starting pitcher Madison Baker, who went 5.1 innings pitched, gave up five runs, only two earned, while only walking two and striking out two.  

Freshman Emily Pratt made her collegiate debut by coming in relief. 

In the bottom half of the inning, Cicero split the left center gap to score freshman Lorryn Sepe from first to make the score 6-3. However, this would be the last time the Yellow Jackets scored in the game. Waynesburg compiled nine hits and stranded seven runners on the base path in the game one loss.  

The Yellow Jackets won the second game 11-3 in six innings due to a Presley Meadows complete game and an explosion of offense in the second inning. 

“She [Meadows] did a really good job, and we just couldn’t adjust to her, and that’s a testament to her,” Brunson said. “They had some good plays in the field made against us, and we made some mistakes too. We threw the ball around a little bit there at the beginning, and we felt like we gave them some things there, but man, they capitalized when they had to, you know, and then their pitcher was good. She just shut us down.” 

The Nittany Lions started the game off 2-0 after the top of the first inning. Meadows escaped the inning by striking out back-to-back batters looking and leaving the bases loaded.  

The Yellow Jackets started off the bottom of the second inning with a walk by Sepe, a hit by pitch for Graeson Grubbs, then a single for Morgan Walt to load the bases. A batter later, Rohbeck hit a single up the middle to tie the game at 2-2.  

The WVU Potomac State College transfer, Braylee Corbin, hit a bases clearing double to left field to give Waynesburg its first lead of the day at 4-2.  

The Yellow Jackets wouldn’t be done as another WVU Potomac State College transfer, Jamie Kelly, hammered a ball over the left field wall for a two-run home run to give Waynesburg a 6-2 lead. 

Brunson says the offense in second was because the batters made adjustments to the Penn State pitching. 

“I think we just made the adjustments that we needed to make,” Brunson said. 

The following inning, Waynesburg piled on two more runs via an RBI single by Walt to score Sepe and Walt. 

Meadows then pitched three shutout innings, only allowing one more run for the rest of the game. 

Waynesburg scored two more runs in the fifth from a sacrifice fly by Corbin and an RBI single by Kelly to score Rohbeck to make the game 10-3.  

“Having my teammates come up and score was just like more momentum for me to keep going out there and throwing,” Meadows said. 

The game ended in the bottom of the sixth inning due to a mercy rule when Grubbs hit an RBI double to left field. 

The Yellow Jackets ended the game with 13 hits, four walks, one strike out and no errors.  

Meadows went six innings in the circle, giving up three runs, walking three and striking out nine. 

“She has really, really put the work in from last year to this year,” Brunson said.  “And it’s a testament to her that she didn’t quit and she just kept fighting.” 

Meadows credits her mentality and offense for her performance on Wednesday. 

“I was excited that we came back and won the second game, obviously, because  

that’s hard to do when you lose the first game anyway to get more momentum to go forward. But I was struggling in the first inning,” Meadows said. “I think my nerves were definitely high and I just told myself I have the mechanics, just take a breath and you can throw.”   

“We have seven pitchers on staff and Autumn is coming back from injury, so, you know, she’s going to be here and there where she can.” Brunson said. “But really we have six healthy bodies and it’s a competition, and I told them it’s wide open, I think the challenge will be to kind of season them [the pitcher] along and then till we get into conference.”  

Waynesburg is set to face the Carlow Celtics on Friday, Feb. 27 at Waynesburg for their home opener. The first pitch is at 12 p.m. 

“We kind of owe them a little bit,” Brunson said. “We split with them last year, and it was just kind of like a little bit of a tense doubleheader. So, I think the kids will be excited about that.”