Penn State Fayette Pulls Off Four Straight Upsets to Capture PSUAC Softball Crown

DuBois, Pa. - The Cinderella run ended on a high note for Penn State Fayette, as their softball team captured their first-ever PSUAC title with a captivating run in the postseason. The unlikely story ended with a 14-8 victory over Penn State Mont Alto on Sunday at Heindl Field in DuBois.

Fayette entered the tournament as the 7-seed, but bullied its way past the 2-seed Penn State Schuylkill on Friday before dispatching 3-seed Mont Alto and 1-seed Penn State New Kensington on Saturday to earn a spot in the championship game. There, the bats stayed hot as Fayette tallied 36 runs in four games on their way to the championship.

Makenzee Kenney pitched all 27 innings that Fayette played this weekend, and despite striking out just two batters in each of her last three outings of the tournament, picked up huge outs when she needed them as she relied on her defense, and in many cases her offense, to pick her up.

Fayette found themselves in an unfamiliar spot in the tournament this weekend--trailing after the first inning. Mont Alto scored the first run of the game in the bottom of the inning on a Sarah Devilbiss RBI single. 

But Fayette didn't take long to find its groove, exploding for five runs in the second inning on the power bat of Taylor Doppelheuer. Doppelheuer blasted a grand slam to center after Kendra Firestone had cracked an RBI single and all of a sudden it was 5-1 Fayette.

It appeared to be a back-and-forth affair as Mont Alto rallied for three runs in the bottom of the inning to make it 5-4. But a bases loaded walk to Haylee Speicher was followed by another RBI from Taylor Doppelheuer to make it 7-4. Then in the fourth, Kylie Stevenson cranked a shot to center field, hitting the top of the pavilion behind the wall before adding another RBI in the fifth to make it 10-4.

Mont Alto would push across a few runs, and had runners in scoring position in multiple innings but couldn't string enough hits together to keep up with the Fayette offense. Every Fayette starter had a hit and scored at least one run, led by Stevenson and Kendra Firestone's three hits. Kenney helped herself at the plate, knocking two hits and scoring twice. Taylor Doppelheuer finished with a game-high five RBIs.

Mont Alto had advanced to the championship game with a 14-6 win over New Kensington in a morning elimination game. Hailey Spielman had three hits and five RBIs, including a three-run homer in the opening inning to give Mont Alto a 3-0 lead. Lauren Allison had three hits and a run scored in the victory to give Mont Alto a chance at a title.

But Fayette did what they've done all week--put the ball in play, keep the ball in front of them and take it one out at a time. All the way to a championship.

With the win, Fayette earns the PSUAC's automatic bid into the 2026 United States Collegiate Athletic Association Softball Small College World Series, set to begin May 11th in DuBois, Pa.