Although the Lions looked solid against the Red Flash, they are looking to maintain focus.
"Lately, we've been feeling really strong," sophomore Kayce Zielinski said.
"We have the mindset of you take one game at a time. Every time we come out, we play our best one game, and that's the only game we see: The game right in front of us."
Wisconsin provided some tough competition last year and took one of the two meetings with the Lions. Both game scores were tight with the largest margin being only three runs.
The Golden Gophers also kept their games against Penn State tight, losing both games, 3-0.
This weekend's opponent shows a lot of similarities to St. Francis, which also kept the games close last year. Those close games turned into blowouts this year, and the Lions are staying with the same mindset and hoping for the same results this weekend.
"Both teams gave us pretty good games last year," Zielinski said. "I know last year, Danielle [Kinley] won the game with a walk-off home run against Minnesota. Both teams are very competitive, and we can't take either team lightly."
With her team's performance against St. Francis, Penn State coach Robin Petrini is confident in the potential for the Lions in conference play. To see both Esparza and Reynolds garner complete games and all batters hitting the ball hard, the Lions are excited to finally jump into conference play.
After a 10-10 conference record last year, the Lions are looking to start off their schedule strong and consistently improve on their play. And that's exactly how the team wants it to be. One game at a time and continue the steady play on both sides of the ball.
"We just have to keep doing what we're doing," Petrini said. "We need to make sure we don't have any misplays or miscues here and there. Some opportunities that we didn't take advantage of, we need to make sure we take advantage of every opportunity that comes our way.
"Competition starts in the Big Ten now. We gotta keep doing what we're doing and stay focused and go win some more games."
