COLLEGE SOFTBALL YSU drops Horizon finale

The Penguins head into next week's tournament as the No. 8 seed.
By PETE MOLLICA
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
CANFIELD -- The Youngstown State softball team will enter next week's Horizon Tournament in a position nobody really expected them to be in.
Tuesday at McCune Park, the Penguins closed out regular-season conference play with a 7-2 loss to Cleveland State. YSU's 4-13 conference mark puts the Penguins in last place for the No. 8 seed in the tournament.
Overall, the Penguins are a disappointing 18-31, but head coach Christy Cameron is optimistic that the Penguins can turn things around.
"Just look what our baseball team did a year ago, winning the tournament from the last seed," Cameron said. "It's not impossible, but we have to get things together in order for it to happen."
Can't put it together
The Penguins have not been able to put things together this season. When they got good pitching, they didn't have hitting and when they hit, their fielding let them down.
"We've been able to pull some positives from this season," Cameron said.
"We've had some young players who definitely have improved over the year and that's a plus going into the tournament.
For most of the season, the Penguins have started five or six freshmen.
They had five starting against the Vikings (18-23, 7-5 Horizon) and they came up with eight of the team's 10 hits in the contest, including three by freshman catcher Sarah Berry.
"If we can ever put everything together, we'll give anybody a rough game," Cameron said.
Costly first inning
Tuesday, the downfall began early as the Vikings scored four times in the first inning. They loaded the bases to open the inning without hitting the ball past the pitcher's circle.
YSU pitcher Ashley Lockmiller deserved better than she got in the inning.
After a swinging dribbler by Amber Lowe opened the game for a hit, Shannon Graves bunted safely. After Grace Luginbuhl struck out, Michelle Penney beat out another bunt to load the bases.
Lockmiller struck out Jackie Cornelius for the second out, but Anna Hubert followed with a double to right-center field that cleared the bases. J.J. Thornberry added another double to left-center field for a 4-0 Vikings' lead.
The Penguins never got untracked offensively.
They had at least one hit in each of the first five innings, including two in the first and fourth frames, but never scored until the seventh when they were trailing 7-0.
In the meantime, the Vikings added single runs in the fourth, sixth and seventh, the first two with the help of Penguins' errors as they had three in the game.
In the bottom of the seventh inning, the Penguins opened with a single by junior Tiffany Patteson, her second hit of the game.
She moved to second on a groundout. With two outs, freshman Sarah Conklin hit a triple to left field scoring Patteson and freshman McKenzie Bedia followed with a single to right scoring Conklin.
The Penguins honored their four seniors prior to the game. Lockmiller, Erin Moore, Kiisha Warfield and Char Kudlock all started.
The Penguins have one more outing before the tournament as they play host to Akron in a doubleheader on Thursday beginning at 5 p.m. at McCune Park.