Agape Freedom Sports LLC

WRITTEN BY: JERIC YURKANIN

Penn State didn’t lose this one quietly. It slipped away in a rush — the kind of game that lives in your chest long after the final out, because it never stopped feeling winnable.

On a warm February afternoon in Houston, the Nittany Lions traded punches with an unbeaten Incarnate Word squad and showed flashes of what this team can become. Power. Patience. Pressure. And then, in the cruel honesty of softball, one late inning flipped the script. Incarnate Word walked it off in the seventh, 5–4, after Penn State had spent most of the day controlling the tone.

The Lions announced themselves early. In the second inning, Natalie Lieto roped a double down the left-field line, setting the table with authority. One pitch later, Allison Oneacre turned a routine at-bat into a statement — a towering blast to straightaway center that cut through the Texas air and put Penn State on the board with a two-run homer. No hesitation. No cheap contact. Just thunder.

That swing mattered because it revealed the identity Penn State is shaping: aggressive when it counts, patient when it has to be, and dangerous from top to bottom. Oneacre would prove that point again in the third.

After Incarnate Word scratched across a run to even things, Penn State answered immediately. Kirsten Finarelli, the Lake-Lehman graduate and Penn State freshman first baseman, worked a disciplined at-bat, part of a quiet theme all afternoon — freshmen refusing to look like freshmen. Lieto reached again, and once more Oneacre made them pay. This time the ball disappeared over the left-field fence, another two-run shot, another surge of momentum, another reminder that mistakes don’t survive long against this lineup. Four RBIs. Two swings. No wasted motion.

From there, the game settled into a tense rhythm. Penn State threatened but couldn’t land the knockout blow. Walks piled up. Runners moved. Sacrifice bunts did their job. But Incarnate Word bent without breaking, surviving multiple innings where one clean hit could have widened the gap.

In the circle, Penn State stitched the afternoon together with depth and grit. McKenna Young set the tone early, working efficiently and attacking hitters. Mackenzie Duncan bridged the middle innings, navigating traffic and keeping the Cardinals from fully settling in. Abigail Britton took the ball later, and while the box score will never tell the whole story, she battled through pressure-packed moments that demanded precision, not panic.

Softball, though, is ruthless with margins. Penn State carried a 4–1 lead into the late innings, and even as Incarnate Word chipped away, nothing felt inevitable. Until it did.

The seventh inning arrived with the kind of tension that hums under your skin. A leadoff single. A sudden spark. Then the swing that flipped the field — a two-run home run that erased the lead and changed the energy instantly. The Cardinals weren’t done. Another home run followed. A double. A sacrifice fly. Four runs crossed before Penn State could reset, and just like that, the game was over.

It’s the type of inning that leaves no time to breathe, no time to regroup. One moment you’re managing outs. The next, you’re shaking hands.

And yet, buried inside the disappointment were moments that mattered — moments that hint at where this season could go.

Valley View graduate Kalli Karwowski stepped onto the field for her first regular-season action as a Penn State freshman, entering as a pinch runner late. It didn’t change the outcome, but it mattered all the same. First appearances always do. They’re the quiet beginnings that turn into chapters later, and for Karwowski, it marked the start of her college journey at the highest level.

Finarelli’s presence at first base told a similar story. Poised. Steady. Unrattled. Freshmen aren’t supposed to look comfortable this early, especially against an unbeaten opponent on a neutral field hundreds of miles from home. But Penn State’s newcomers didn’t blink — they competed, contributed, and belonged.

That’s what made this loss sting a little deeper. The pieces were there. The swings were there. The moments lined up. Penn State out-hit Incarnate Word in key stretches, worked seven walks, and showed the kind of situational awareness that wins games when February turns into April.

But February is for lessons, not records.

This one taught a few. Finish innings. Slam doors when they open. Understand that no lead is safe, not for a pitch, not for a breath. It also reinforced something important — this team can play with anyone. Power travels. Discipline travels. Depth travels.

Penn State left Houston with a loss on paper, but not with doubts about who they are. If anything, the Nittany Lions left knowing they’re close — close enough that games like this hurt, because they’re supposed to.

And that’s exactly where a dangerous team wants to be this early in the season.