Penguin softball struggles
This past weekend was not a very good one for the Youngstown State softball team, but hopefully the Penguin baseball team will have a better time in another week when it plays host to the Horizon League tournament at Eastwood Field.
The softball team, which struggled to produce runs for most of this season, followed that script last weekend at the Horizon Tournament in Chicago.
The Penguins lost 1-0 in an opening round game to Butler, then were eliminated in the second game, 1-0, by defending tournament champion Wright State on Saturday.
Two straight losses in the tournament is hardly what YSU coach Christy Cameron expected going into this season.
The Penguins were a No. 2 seed a year ago and finished third in the tournament after winning their first two games.
Faltered at the end
This season, YSU was picked to finish second behind Illinois-Chicago in the pre-season poll and with just over a week remaining in the regular season that's just where the Penguins were.
But then they lost a doubleheader to Cleveland State and lost two out of three to Butler in the season-ending series and dropped to fourth place.
Probably one of the biggest losses for the Penguins occurred even before the season began, when sophomore left fielder Liz Holt and sophomore catcher Aime Soller, both standouts a year ago, decided not to return to school this year.
That left two pretty big holes in the lineup, since Holt was a .304 hitter and led the team with 10 home runs, while Soller, a solid catcher, hit .265.
A year ago, junior Amanda Berry was named the Horizon League's player of the year, while freshman pitcher Kelly Murphy was the league's pitcher of the year.
Both of those players excelled again in 2004, along with sophomore shortstop Tiffany Patteson, who repeated on the league's all-conference team this season.
No run support
Murphy, who was 22-6 a year ago with a 1.47 ERA and 179 strikeouts, fell to 14-12 this season, but eight of her losses were one-run decisions, including both games in the Horizon tournament. Her ERA was still under 2.00 and she also pitched the entire season with a stress fracture in her right index finger.
The Penguins were 36-17-1 a year ago, setting all kinds of school and league records. They finished 29-20 this year, which isn't all that bad, but still disappointing to Cameron and the team, which expected more.
Throughout the season Cameron felt the team was just waiting to explode. She said they needed to do the little things to create wins.
They did a lot of those this past weekend, especially getting the sacrifice bunts down to move runners into scoring position. The problem was that the Penguins were just not able to get the runners in to score.
Cameron has not been sitting around idly this year, already signing five recruits, mostly hitters and fielders, since she has Murphy back for two more years and freshman Karlie Burnell, who won nine games this year, for three.
Baseball coming around
The season has been both disappointing and frustrating for the YSU baseball team.
The Penguins entered the weekend series against Illinois-Chicago in last place in the Horizon League. Coach Mike Florak had high expectations for this team, but first injuries, then mother nature, which washed out so many games, took over.
With only one league series remaining before the Horizon tournament there is not much chance the team will be able to bring home a very high seed.
The pitching staff is young. Sophomore Justin Thomas has started 12 games and leads the team with a 6-2 record, while Eric Shaffer, Kevin Libeg and Brian Boone are also sophomores and Chris Dennis is a junior.
Florak is hopeful that seniors Clint Ford and Frank Santore can provide some support in the tournament, while seniors Paul Yates and Mike Hosterman and freshman Andy Svitak comprise the bullpen.
The tournament runs from May 26-30 at Eastwood Field. Games are scheduled for 10:30 a.m., 2:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. from May 26-28.
XPete Mollica covers YSU athletics for The Vindicator. Write to him at mollica@vindy.com.