Thomas, Campbell earn league honors

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

The Youngstown State softball team’s regular season was anything but regular.

The Penguins are hoping the same is true of the postseason.

Thanks to a seven-win improvement in Horizon League play and their most overall victories since 2004, the Penguins (28-19-1, 12-10) took home some impressive hardware on Tuesday.

Senior outfielder Haley Thomas was named the Horizon League’s player of the year and head coach Brian Campbell was named conference coach of the year.

“I don’t have words for it,” said Thomas, who led the league in batting (.440), hits (a school-record 70) and doubles (17). “It’s a great honor but I also know there are a lot of expectations that come with that and I’m preparing to perform in the tournament like I have all year.”

Fourth-seeded YSU will play fifth-seeded Butler in the first round of the Horizon League tournament at noon today in Valparaiso, Ind. The winner will face regular-season champion and top-seeded Valparaiso at noon on Thursday.

“These young ladies came in four years ago, these seniors, and took the program to the next level,” said Campbell, who had a 5-16 record in the Horizon last season. “I’m just so proud of the players and the coaches for working hard and doing a fantastic job all year long.”

Senior Jordan Ingalls was named to the conference’s first team along with Thomas and junior Vicky Rumph was named second team. Freshman Kayla Haslett was named to the all-newcomer team.

“I think there’s a lot of excitement right now because we haven’t been to [the] conference [tournament] in [two] years,” said Ingalls, who is just the third YSU player to earn HL first team honors in back-to-back years. “We’re just excited to be on the field and hopefully keep rolling with what we’ve been rolling with the entire season.”

The Horizon League’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament will be decided at 1 p.m. Saturday. If necessary, a second game will be played at 3 p.m. Saturday’s games will be carried live on the Horizon League Network.

YSU won the conference tournament in 2006 — the only time the Penguins have finished either first or second since joining the league in 2002.

“The last couple years, even though we didn’t make the conference tournament, the kids fed off of not being there,” said Campbell. “We’ve went game by game all year long and our next game is Butler. That’s where our focus will be.”