The 2011-2012 season for the Penn State New Kensington Women's Softball Team was a memorable one. The season started off in early March, when the team departed for a week long trip down to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where they would play a grueling eight game schedule in just four days.

            Losing the first day games was frustrating losing 10-1 and 4-3 to Sauk Valley Community College.  Shaking these two losses off and looking at what they did wrong, the team came out the next day and played two spirited games winning them both, 10-9 against Wentworth Institutue of Technology and 5-3 against Penn State Berks. 

            The rest of the trip did not go as well as the team hoped, as the girls would lose the next 3 games. The last game scheduled for the trip was cancelled. 

            After arriving back in Pennsylvania, the girls were eager to continue to work on improving different areas. " Going down to the beach for a week was nice for the girls to bond as a team with each other, but as a coaching staff, it was great to get a jump start on the season, and get a look at our team before we started conference play" head coach Mike Marsili was quoted as saying after the team got back from the trip down south. 

            After a 23 day layoff, the girls were back in action against Penn State Worthington Scranton, in which they displayed two of their best offensive showings of the season, winning both games 9-1 and 16-0. 

            Rival Penn State Beaver was up next on the schedule. In the first game, the offense had trouble hitting Co-Pitcher of the year in Korie Freyermuth, only mustering up 1 hit. The girls re-bounded nicely, winning the second game 10-4. Tarra Orvaec showed what an offensive weapon she was, hitting two home runs (a solo shot, and a grand slam) and driving in five runs. 

            Up next was Carlow University, who for the majority of the year was ranked at the top of the USCAA Softball polls. The girls put up a valiant fight in both games, but were unable to muster up a run in either game losing 6-0 and 1-0 in respective games. 

            One of the many high points of the season, came when the girls won their next six games in a row, Penn State Greater Allegheny, Penn State Hazelton, and Penn College. 

            Two of the best games of the year came in wins over Penn College. Both games went to extra innings, in which Penn State New Kensington was able to win both games in walk-off fashion. Keri Barnes hit a 3 run home run to win it for New Kensington in the first game, and in the second game Sarah Kutchko hit a walk off single to win the game. 

            Spirits were riding high after both of these tough fought wins. The girls also found themselves at the top of the standings , which garnered hope of the thought of finishing first and thus hosting the 2012 PSUAC Softball championships.

            The next six games were a dissapointment in losing five of the six, with the only win coming in the second of 2 games against Penn State Fayette. The girls managed to grab the number 3 seed in the PSUAC playoffs, and were matched up against Penn State Mont Alto.

            The girls put up a valiant fight, but were unable to come away with the victory, falling 4-1. The girls were then faced with the situation that if they wanted their season to continue into the next day, they had to beat Penn State Hazelton. Garnering a great combination of both pitching and hitting, the girls were able to grind out a tough fought victory, winning the game 1-0. 

            All good things must come to an end, and unforunately the next game was indeed the last game for the 2012 Penn State New Kensington girls softball team. Once again they were to play Penn State Mont Alto, with the winner advancing to face Penn State Beaver in the championship series.  The season came to an end with a 2-0 loss to Penn State Mont Alto. " The girls have come so far in this season. If you look at where we were at the beginning of the season down in Myrtle Beach, as compared to where we were today, its such a vast difference. We can take the things we learned from this season and parlay them into next's year run for a championship. All of the girls should be returning to play next year, so we should contend next year for the championship!". 

 Penn State New Kensington Women's Softball (11-13, 11-7) finishes the season in 3rd place in the PSUAC. 

Season Notables-

Penn State New Kensington won two player of the week honors.

Keri Barnes was named player of the week for week 6 of the season.

Tarra Oravec was named pitcher of the week for week 4 of the season.