COLLEGE SOFTBALL YSU splits twinbill with Ill-Chicago

Youngstown State can clinch the Horizon League title with a win today.
CHICAGO -- The Youngstown State softball team split a doubleheader with Illinois-Chicago Saturday and needs one victory to clinch the Horizon League's regular season championship and the top seed in next week's league tournament.
The Penguins, behind a stellar performance by junior Amanda Berry and the pitching of Kelly Murphy and Steph Hartman, won the opening game 6-1. UIC rallied in the seventh inning of the second game for an 8-7 victory.
The Penguins (34-14-1, 13-4-1 Horizon) need a victory in today's series finale with the Flames to win the league championship, or Loyola to lose to Detroit.
Berry, Murphy lead opener
Berry had three hits, including a pair of triples, and drove in five of the Penguins' six runs in the opener.
Murphy, a freshman, became the first pitcher in YSU history to win 20 games in a season, allowing one run on six hits through six innings. Hartman retired the Flames in the seventh.
Berry broke open a scoreless tie in the fifth when she tripled down the right-field line with the bases loaded.
With YSU ahead 3-1 in the seventh, Berry unloaded another two-out triple that score two more runs, then freshman Liz Holt drove in the final run with a single to right.
Game winning double
In the second game Kristin Cumbo hit a two-out double in the top of the seventh inning to give the Flames the victory.
UIC pounded out 11 hits off YSU's pitchers, Hartman and Ashley Lockmiller.
Nicole Shepard tied the UIC school record for hits in a game with a 4-for-4 performance while driving in three runs. Cumbo finished with three hits and three RBIs.
The contest was scoreless through the first three innings before the Flames scored three runs in the top of the fourth.
Sara Hernandez and Amanda Rivera opened with singles, then an RBI groundout by Alyica Creese was followed by a run-scoring single by Shepard and RBI double by Cumbo.
Lockmiller relieved Hartman in the fourth.
Youngstown State scored a pair of runs in the fourth on a two-out bases loaded walk and a wild pitch.
The Flames got three more runs in the fifth and the Penguins added one in their half of the inning before UIC took a 7-3 lead after six.
Penguins tie up contest
In the sixth, the Penguins took advantage of two UIC errors and had three hits to score four runs, tying the score at 7.
In the top of the seventh Lockmiller retired the first two batters with ease, then Shepard hit a high chopper off home plate that went for a single. Cumbo then came through with a two-out double to left-center that scored Shepard with the winning run.
The Penguins had eight hits in the second game, two each by freshman Tiffany Patteson, freshman Char Kudlock and senior Zetta Dumkrieger.
Those three also had two hits in the opener to go along with Berry's three hits, while Lacey Reichert also added two hits in the opener.