Bad afternoon for YSU softball

By Pete Mollica

The Penguins were routed 17-2 by UIC which swept the three-game series.

CANFIELD — It was not a good afternoon for the Youngstown State softball team Sunday.

The Penguins (5-18, 2-6 Horizon League) gave up 19 hits and committed five errors in dropping a 17-2 contest to Illinois-Chicago as the Flames completed a three-game sweep at McCune Park.

The Penguins were able to do very little offensively thanks to the pitching of UIC junior Sarah Clynes (10-11), who scattered four hits and retired the Penguins in order in six of the seven innings.

YSU got all four of its hits in the fifth inning when the Penguins scored both of their runs off Clynes. Other than that YSU hit only one other ball out of the infield.

“It really wasn’t pretty to watch,” said YSU coach Christy Cameron. “I told them after the game that they had [today] off and then we needed to get back to work on just about every aspect of the game.”

Clynes also led the Flames at the plate, hitting safely in her first five trips to the plate. That included a solo home run and two doubles and five RBIs. The only time she didn’t hit safely was her second time at bat in the seventh inning when she reached on one of the three errors the Penguins made in the inning.

That seventh inning was a real nightmare for the Penguins.

UIC sent 16 batters to the plate, scored 10 runs on eight hits, a walk and three YSU errors. At one point they hit six consecutive singles against a drawn in YSU infield and five of them resulted in runs.

Clynes was perfect for the first four innings as she retired the first 12 Penguins she faced and only leadoff batter Rochelle Vanyi, who opened the game with a fly out to center field, got the ball out of the infield.

But in the fifth senior McKenzie Bedra opened the inning with a bloop single to right field, the first hit off Clynes. Senior Jamie Fornal followed with a single to center. After Autumn Grove popped out for the first out, senior Beth Hafley singled to load the bases.

The Penguins scored their first run when freshman Kim Klonowski grounded to short with Bedra scoring, and senior Becky Hibner followed with a single to center scoring Fornal.

Clynes then settled down and retired the final seven batters she faced. She had only three strikeouts and walked one.

Sophomore Danielle Chase (3-8) started for the Penguins and pitched 32‚Ñ3 innings before being relieved in the fourth after the Flames had scored four runs and taken a 5-0 lead. Sophomore Cheryl Cale allowed two more runs in the fifth and pitched to the first 10 batters in the seventh before sophomore Erin Schindler came on to finish the game.

The Penguins are scheduled to play a doubleheader at Toledo Wednesday beginning at 3 p.m. and return home Saturday to open a three-game Horizon League series with Butler with a doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m.

mollica@vindy.com