Dowd’s HR puts YSU softball in title showdown

Staff report

CHICAGO

Senior Sarah Dowd hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the sixth inning to lift the Youngstown State softball team to a 3-2 win over Detroit in an elimination game in the Horizon League Tournament on Friday.

The Penguins, who lost to UIC earlier in the day, will face the Flames at 1 p.m. today.

YSU (31-27) must defeat the Flames twice to win the Horizon League title and earn the program’s second berth to the NCAA Regional Tournament.

The Titans scored twice in the top half of the sixth on back-to-back doubles and a suicide-squeeze for a 2-1 lead.

YSU senior Maria Lacatena led off the bottom half with a walk. On the next pitch, Dowd smashed her eighth home run of the season and the 37th of her career over the left-field wall.

After a UDM’s Kara Vitale led off the seventh with a double and third on a ground out. Freshman Maddi Lusk, who picked up the win in relief, induced a grounder to third and a fly out to right field to end the game.

The Penguins took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the third when Cali Mikovich plated Alexandria Gibson, who double to lead off the inning, with a single to center.

Sophomore Paige Geanangel turned in an impressive start going five-plus innings and allowed both runs on just five hits.

The Penguins fell to UIC, 6-3, in the winner’s bracket final earlier in day.

YSU had the bases loaded in the top of the first and second innings but stranded the runners both times.

UIC scored three in the bottom of the first and two more in the bottom of the third to take a 5-0 lead.

The Penguins cut the deficit to 5-1 with a run in the fourth, but UIC answered with one in the bottom of the fifth.

Lacatena and Dowd each had run-scoring singles in the top of the seventh to cut the UIC lead to 6-3.