Butler wallops Penguins, 8-1

PENDLETON, Ind. — Butler scored six runs in the bottom of the fifth inning Thursday to expand a 2-1 edge into an insurmountable 8-1 lead and defeated the Youngstown State softball team in the first round of the Horizon League Softball Championship at Legends Field.

The Penguins fall to 8-41 and will face No. 6 Valparaiso in an elimination game today at 9 a.m.

The Penguins began the game with three straight hits but could only net one run.

Freshman Haley Thomas, who went 2-foir-3, led off the game with a single up the middle but was thrown out trying to steal.

Sophomore Kristina Rendle followed with her first career home run top put the Penguins up 1-0.

After a single by sophomore Kim Klonowski, freshman Jordan Ingalls lined into a double play to squelch the Penguins threat.

Butler knotted the game at 1-1 on a run-scoring double by Lauren McNulty in the bottom of the second inning.

The Bulldogs took the lead, 2-1, in the bottom of the fourth on McNulty’s single.

The Penguins only recorded four more hits the rest of the game — two in the sixth and two more in the seventh — and did not have a player reach third base after the first inning.