Thursday, March 30, 2017
Staff report
youngstown
The Youngstown State softball continued their winning ways with a doubleheader sweep of Robert Morris.
YSU won 8-0 in Game 1 and a 12-3 win in Game 2. Both games finished in five innings.
The games were originally slated to be played at North Athletic Complex at Duquesne but had to be moved due to soft field conditions.
In the first game, the Penguins took advantage of five RMU (6-21) errors en route to an 8-0 five-inning victory. Brittany Moffatt singled in a run and would later score on a groundout by Sarah Dowd to put the hosts on top after one inning. The Penguins tacked on another score in the third inning on Maddi Lusk’s single.
Youngstown State broke the game open in the fifth frame, scoring five runs on three hits and a pair of miscues. The big blow came off the bat Lusk who laced a two-run single to center field.
Bartlow and Briana Bunner accounted for the lone RMU hits. Lusk earned the win for YSU allowing just two hits and striking out seven in five innings. Kaitlin Ellzy took the loss for RMU.
The nightcap got off to a more promising start as Lorusso, who went 3-of-3 in the game with two RBI, sent an 0-1 pitch over the center field fence to record her sixth homer of the season in the first inning. The Penguins quickly equalized on a Cali Mikovich bomb in the bottom of the frame.
The Penguins went on to score in every inning en route to a 12-3 five-inning victory. They pushed across two runs in both the second and third innings before the floodgates opened in a seven-run fourth inning. Stevie Taylor did the majority of the damage when she launched a grand slam over the center field fence. Taylor finished the game with five runs batted in.
Robert Morris scored a single run in the third when Barltow and Lorusso started the frame with back-to-back doubles, Lorusso’s shot to left center plating Bartlow. A bases loaded groundout by Natalie Higgins allowed Bartlow to score again in the fifth inning.