Tourney is on the Horizon

The regular season ended Sunday for the Youngstown State softball team and the Penguins finished on a winning note with a 4-2 victory over Loyola in Chicago.
The win gave the Penguins a 10-10 league record, which is the same mark as the Ramblers.
The pairings for this week's Horizon League tournament, which is being hosted by the Penguins at McCune Park in Canfield, won't be released until tonight since there is one more league game to be played today between UW-Green Bay and Butler.
Right now it looks like the Penguins will face the Ramblers in the tournament's opening round Thursday.
Likely fifth-placeseeding for Penguins
Unless Green Bay sweeps Butler, the Ramblers will get the No. 4 seed by virtue of its 2-1 series win over the Penguins, who will drop to fifth place.
That contest would be played at 1 p.m. Thursday.
Illinois-Chicago won the regular season championship last weekend by sweeping Wright State, while Cleveland State, which went into the weekend leading the standings, dropped two of three games to Detroit.
UIC finished with a 14-6 league record, a half-game ahead of the Vikings (14-7). Cleveland State was one of just two teams who played all 21 league contests and it ended up costing the Vikings a share of the regular season title.
Detroit, which finished at 13-7, is all alone in third place, while Wright State, the only other team that played all 21 league games, finished at 6-15.
The tournament will get under way Thursday at 9 a.m. and Cleveland State will be in the opener, either against Wright State or Butler.
The Penguins have had an up-and-down season, looking very good at times, but very poor other times.
Good pitching goesa long way for Penguins
Pitching is the key for the Penguins. When they get good pitching they win more times than they lose.
Junior Karlie Burnell is the Penguins' best pitcher and she ranks with the best pitchers in the conference.
If Burnell can survive and do most of the work in the tournament the Penguins have a chance, although against the top three teams they have never finished better than 1-2 in a series this year.
The Penguins have plenty of sticks in the lineup, led by three-time All-Horizon League standout Tiffany Patteson, who leads the team with a .354 average and has a team-high 12 doubles.
Freshman catcher-outfielder Kristen McDonnell has had a big year for the Penguins and is batting .331 with a team-high 10 home runs and a team-high 30 RBIs.
Sophomore Jamie Fornal is batting .325 and senior Lacy Bronson is hitting .305, but nobody else on the team is hitting over .300.
It's a shame that senior pitcher Kelly Murphy wasn't able to play her senior season with the Penguins.
Murphy, who was the Horizon League's pitcher of the year as a freshman when she posted a 22-6 record and a 1.47 ERA, injured her finger on her throwing hand in the league tournament that season.
Injury continuedto plague her career
Although she came back to post a 14-12 record and a league-best 1.46 ERA the next season, her injury continued to plague her for the remainder of her career.
She was 8-9 last season and this year pitched in only one game before deciding to call it quits.
Murphy, from North Olmsted, is YSU's all-time strikeout leader and ranked second on the all-time list for victories.
All the action gets under way Thursday and it will be an opportunity for softball fans to get their fill of the game right in their own back yard.
McCune Park in Canfield is a beautiful field and there will be plenty of seating and concessions for everyone interested in coming out.
A good crowd might even help the Penguins in their quest to become the Horizon League's tournament champions.
Pete Mollica covers YSU athletics for The Vindicator. Write to him at mollica@vindy.com.