YSU Softball second seed in tourney

The Penguins play Detroit Thursday in the Horizon League tournament.
CHICAGO -- Youngstown State's bid for its first Horizon League championship fell short Sunday, when the Penguins lost 4-3 to Illinois-Chicago.
Youngstown State (34-15-1, 13-5-1 Horizon) finished in second place in the league standings behind Loyola (16-5), which swept a three-game weekend series from Detroit.
The Penguins, as the No. 2 seed in the Horizon tournament, will play Detroit (18-20-1, 4-8-1) Thursday at Cleveland State. If they win that game, they will play at 5 p.m. Thursday against the winner of the UIC-Cleveland State game. A loss would send Youngstown State to a loser's bracket game on Friday.
Sunday, the Penguins fell quickly behind 4-0 after allowing a run in the first inning and three in the second, but made a valiant comeback attempt that came up short. The Penguins cut into the Flames' lead, 4-1, with a run in the top of the fifth inning. Freshman Aimee Soller singled and scored on Tiffany Patteson's eighth triple of the season. Patteson, who went 2-for-4, was left stranded at third.
Freshman Liz Holt's 10th home run of the season, a two-run shot, scored junior Amanda Berry, who led off the inning with a single, and cut the deficit to 4-3 but the Penguins would not come any closer.
Freshman Kelly Murphy scattered nine hits in the loss and falls to 20-5 on the season and 8-2 against Horizon League opponents.
Baseball
NILES -- Wright State starter Casey Abrams had a no-hitter through six innings and took a four-run lead going into the bottom of the seventh, but Youngstown State erupted for three runs in the seventh and seven in the eighth for a 10-4 Horizon League victory at Cafaro Field.
YSU had only two baserunners in the first six innings, but finished with nine hits -- seven players had at least one -- and eight scored.
The game was scoreless until the seventh, when Wright State (17-29, 8-12 HL) scored all of its runs, but the Penguins (23-23, 11-9) rallied with three runs in the bottom of the inning and seven more an inning later.
YSU starter Justin Thomas allowed four runs -- only one was earned -- and struck out five in 62/3 innings.
Chris Dennis threw 21/3 scoreless innings to earn his first victory. He allowed one hit and struck out three.
The Penguins started off the seventh with four straight singles that led to three runs. Charles Schultz, Justin Banks, Adam Cox and Brian Boone had the hits that made the score 4-2. J.D. Hannan laid down a sacrifice bunt to put runners at second and third, then Jim Lipinski's groundout made it 4-3.
In the eight, Kendall Schlabach drew a leadoff walk, then Brandon Caipen reached on a fielder's choice and Schultz singled through the right side to load the bases.
Flood gate opens
Two batters later, Cox drew a walk to tie the score, then Boone hit a single to left. All three runners scored when the Wright State outfielder couldn't field the ball cleanly. Hannan followed with a bunt single to put runners on the corners with one out, then Phillips hit a three-run homer, his fifth of the season, to make it 10-4.
After a leadoff double, Dennis retired the next three hitters to seal the victory. Boone finished 2-for-3 with three RBIs while Schultz had two hits and two runs scored. Cox added two runs and two RBIs.
The Penguins travel to UW-Milwaukee for a four-game series, starting with one game Friday at 8 p.m.