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Worth the wait: YSU wins opener
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Youngstown State’s Samantha Snodgrass rolls over Eastern Michigan’s Abby Davidson during Game One of the Penguins’ season-opening doubleheader Tuesday at the new YSU Softball Complex. The Penguins shut out the Eagles, 7-0, but fell in the nightcap, 6-3.
By Joe Scalzo
YOUNGSTOWN
Youngstown State’s motto is Animus Liberatus (“The mind freed”), but in the days leading up to the Penguins’ softball home opener, Animus Distractus would have been more accurate.
“A lot of people said they had sleepless nights [on Monday],” senior Casey Crozier said, “and that during class they couldn’t concentrate.”
“All of us have been checking out the forecast for the last couple weeks,” senior Sarah Ingalls added. “We were just hoping it would warm up because this has been the worst winter ever in Youngstown.”
On Tuesday, under clear skies and in (relatively) warm weather, the Penguins played the first on-campus softball game in the program’s 34-year history.
And, thanks to Crozier and Ingalls, they won it.
Crozier tossed a one-hitter and Ingalls hit a three-run homer halfway to the McDonald’s beyond left field, helping the Penguins blank Eastern Michigan, 7-0, in the first game of a doubleheader at the new stadium across from Stambaugh Stadium.
“It was fun to be on our own dirt,” Crozier said.
Crozier struck out five and walked five, giving up the lone single in the fourth inning. She also extended her school record for wins (48, two more than Kim Givens) and strikeouts (437, 51 more than Givens), holding the Eagles at bay until YSU erupted for four runs in the fifth inning and three more in the sixth.
“This means a lot to our whole senior class,” Crozier said of the new facility. “The whole team, but especially the senior class.
“This is our last year, we’re working for the [conference championship] ring and I think that having the first win here was really big.”
YSU leadoff hitter Haley Knight had the facility’s first hit, a single to left in the bottom of the first inning, and Jordan Macey scored the first run thanks to Sarah Dowd’s two-run single in the fifth inning.
Ingalls, an Ursuline High graduate, then homered in the sixth and finished with two hits and four RBIs for the Penguins (12-9), who lost the second game, 6-3.
The new stadium, which is located next to Farmers National Bank Field, replaces Canfield’s McCune Park, which hosted YSU games from 2003-2013. Tuesday’s game drew a crowd of about 200 people, including several former players.
“It’s exciting to just walk straight across the street and be able to play ball,” YSU coach Brian Campbell said.
The Penguins had not even practiced at the new field before Tuesday’s game and the university spent the past week scrambling, Sochi-style, to make sure it was ready in time for the opener. YSU installed the scoreboard on Monday and used it for the first time Tuesday.
“But it worked; that’s all that mattered,” said Campbell, who praised YSU facilities coordinator Matt Rollins for getting the field playable after a wet winter. “I think when it’s the first [game], there’s always things you have to fix, but I think it went well.”
YSU’s season is also going well, with wins in seven of the last 10 games. After finishing second to Valparaiso in last year’s Horizon League tournament, the Penguins open conference play against the Crusaders on Saturday.
“This is the best start we’ve had in my four years and we’re very excited about having Valpo this weekend,” Ingalls said. “They’re always tough, but our bats have been waking up the last couple games and that’s what we need to have happen to win.”