| Loyola Eliminates Penguins, 5-2 |
| Friday, May 13 2005 |
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| Ashwaubenon, Wis. -- Loyola's Mia Pangere fired a four-hitter and allowed just one earned run to pace the fourth-seeded Ramblers (18-36) past No. 8 Youngstown State (19-34), 5-2, and eliminate the Penguins on Friday at the 2005 Horizon League Tournament. The Penguins were unable to capitalize on four Loyola errors and five Pangere walks while the Ramblers used a four-run fifth inning to surge past Youngstown State. YSU's Kelly Murphy tossed four innings and allowed just one run and four hits. |
| Penguins Fall to Flames, 13-4, in First Round |
| Thursday, May 12 2005 |
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| Ashwaubenon, Wis. -- The eighth-seeded Youngstown State softball team fell to 19-33 after suffering a 13-4 loss to top-seeded Illinois-Chicago in the first round of the 2005 Horizon League Softball Championships. After falling behind, 3-0, after two innings, the Penguins plated an unearned run in the top of the third inning and tied the game with two more runs in the top of the fourth. Bethany Hafley singled to left field with two outs and scored on Becky Hibner's triple down the right field line. Junior Lacey Hess, who went 2-for-3 with two RBI, followed with a single to center field to knot the game at 3-3. The Flames, who pounded out 15 hits, including four home runs, quickly regained the lead, 7-3, with a four-run fourth inning. Youngstown State added another run in the top of the sixth inning on Hess' base-loaded single to cut the deficit to center field, but UIC exploded for six runs, five of them unearned, in the bottom of the frame to end the contest at 13-4. The Penguins face No. 4 Loyola, which lost to No. 5 Detroit, 4-1, in an elimination game on Friday at 10 a.m. EDT. |
| Berry Tabbed Horizon League Newcomer of the Year; Patteson, Bedra Garner Awards |
| Wednesday, May 11 2005 |
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| Indianapolis, Ind. -- For the second time in three years, a Youngstown State softball player has been awarded the Horizon League's Newcomer-of-the-Year Award after freshman Sarah Berry was named the league's top newcomer by the Horizon League's head coaches. Berry leads the Penguins with a .393 batting average against League foes and also owns an overall batting average of .333. For the third consecutive season, junior shortstop Tiffany Patteson earned league honors after being named to the All-Horizon League Second-Team. In 2004 and 2003, Patteson was a first-team all-league selection. Patteson, who leads the team with a .347 batting average, has 58 hits this season, which is the second-highest single-season total in school history. Along with Sarah Berry, freshman McKenzie Bedra was named to the Horizon League All-Newcomer Team for the 2005 season. Bedra is batting .327 against league opposition and belted four home runs in league contests. On the season, Bedra is batting .287 with seven home runs, seven doubles and a team-best 26 runs batted in. The Penguins face top-seeded Illinois-Chicago in the first round of the 2005 Horizon League Softball Tournament, Thursday, at 10 a.m. EDT. |
| Eighth-Seeded Penguins Face Top-Seed UIC Thursday |
| Wednesday, May 11 2005 |
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| Youngstown, Ohio -- The Youngstown State softball team (19-32) enters the 2005 Horizon League Tournament as the eighth seed and will face top-seeded and regular-season champion Illinois-Chicago (38-25), Thursday, May 12, at 10 a.m. (EDT) in Green Bay, Wis. The Penguins will face either No. 4 Loyola or No. 5 Detroit in the second round. |
| Softball Splits with Zips |
| Friday, May 6 2005 |
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| Canfield, Ohio -- The Youngstown State softball team (19-32) split their final regular-season doubleheader of the year beating Akron 3-1 in game one before falling to the Zips 6-2 in the second contest on Thursday at McCune Park. In the first game, Char Kudlock had two hits, including a home run, and Karlie Burnell had a strong outing after replacing an injured Kelly Murphy in the second inning. Burnell tossed six scoreless innings scattering four hits to earn her third win of the season. In the second game, the Penguins built a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the fifth on an RBI double by Lacey Hess and a sacrifice fly by Tiffany Patteson, but Akron struck for three runs in both the sixth and seventh innings for the come-from-behind victory. Akron began the first game quickly scoring a run off Murphy in the top of the first. At the conclusion of the inning, Murphy left the contest after taking a comebacker off her pitching hand. YSU tied the game in the bottom of third when Patteson led off the inning with a single and came home to score on Sarah Conklin's two-out single. The Penguins grabbed the lead for good in the next inning when Becky Hibner scored on a two-out Kudlock single. In the sixth, Kudlock belted her third homer of the season when the ball hit off the top of the wall in left-center and bounced over the fence. Game two was scoreless through the first four-and-a-half innings before the Penguins broke through in the bottom of the fifth. Hibner led off the inning with a single and scored on Hess' double off the left-field wall. After Kudlock sacrificed Hess to third, Patteson came through with a sacrifice fly to put YSU in front 2-0. In the sixth, starter Ashley Lockmiller (6-8) ran into trouble. Carrese Moody led off the inning with a single and after a pop out, Rebecca Stern reached on a base hit of her own. Lockmiller struck out Kerry Omerza for the second out, but Kelly Quigley's slow grounder to short was beat out at second by Stern to keep the inning alive. Lockmiller walked Jaclyn Spirtos to score a run and Lindsay Vittorio hit a chopper up the middle to plate two and give the Zips a 3-2 lead. In the seventh, with one out and Rachel Kraus on second, Sara Zilles walked before both runners moved up on a wild pitch. Stern ripped a single to left that plated Kraus easily and then Zilles came home to score on an error as Stern moved up to second. Omerza followed with a base hit to score Stern as the Zips extended their lead to 6-2. The Penguins are next in action at the Horizon League Championships hosted by UW-Green Bay. |
| Hibner's Eighth-Inning Triple Lifts YSU Past Wright State, 5-4 |
| Sunday, May 1 2005 |
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| Fairborn, Ohio -- Freshman Becky Hibner's two-out triple in the top of the eighth innings plated Sarah Conklin and broke a 4-4 tie and lifted the Youngstown State softball team (18-30, 4-12 Horizon League) past Wright State (14-17, 6-7 Horizon League), 5-4, on Sunday at the WSU Softball Field. Conklin led off the top of the frame with a single, advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt and moved to third on Bethany Hafley's ground out before scoring on Hibner's game-winner. The Raiders jumped out to an early 1-0 lead after one inning but the Penguins answered with two runs in the top of the second inning. Freshman Shauna Barry and junior Tiffany Patteson each ripped run-scoring singles to give the Penguins a 2-1 advantage. Wright State, however, regained the lead with a three-run second inning to take a 4-2 advantage after two innings. Leading off the top of the sixth, freshman McKenzie Bedra, who went 3-for-3, homered for the second time in as many days to cut the deficit to 4-3. Hafley and Hibner, who went 3-for-4, followed with singles and Shauna Barry's sacrifice fly plated Hafley with the game-tying run. Sophomore Tricia Hilbish fired five innings of scoreless relief to pick up the win while allowing just three hits and Ashley Lockmiller tossed a perfect eighth inning to garner her second save of the season. The Penguins return home to face Cleveland State in a single game, Tuesday, May 3, at 4 p.m. |