Missed chances doom Penguins

YSU softball team

strands 14 in defeat

Staff report

CHICAGO

The Youngstown State softball team’s season came to an end after falling to Cleveland State, 5-2, in nine innings in a Horizon League Championship elimination game at Flames Field on the campus of UIC.

The Penguins finished the season with an overall record of 30-21. It marks just the third 30-win season in program history and the second in the last three years.

Cleveland State (21-31) faces No. 2 Wright State in an elimination game at noon today.

The Vikings scored three runs in the top of the ninth inning and broke 2-2 tie to advance to face the Raiders.

The Penguins, who recorded 14 hits but left 14 runners on base, were led by senior Miranda Castiglione and sophomore Stevie Taylor with three hits each. Juniors Sarah Dowd and Maria Lacatena and sophomore Hannah Lucas each added two hits.

Freshman pitcher Paige Geanangel allowed just one hit through five innings and scattered six total, but was the hard-luck loser. Geanangel finished the season with a record of 17-12.

The Penguins scored in the first inning on Brittney Moffatt’s sacrifice fly to left field, but the Penguins left two runners on base.

Cleveland State tied the game at 1-1 with a run in the top half of the third before the Penguins regained the lead in the bottomo half of the fourth inning. Taylor led off the inning with a single and moved to second on an error. She advanced to third on Lucas’ bunt single and scored on a wild pitch.

Cleveland State’s Susan Knight tripled to lead off the sixth inning and scored on Erica McNew’s ground out.