Avrey Schumacher hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the eighth inning to lift the Youngstown State softball team to a 3-1 victory over Cleveland State and secured the 2021 Horizon League Softball Regular-Season Championship on Saturday afternoon at the YSU Softball Field.

The title marks the first regular-season championship in the program's history and the first time YSU earned the No. 1 seed in the Horizon League Championship, which the Penguins will host May 13-15.

The Penguins, who swept the doubleheader and season series from the Vikings, won game one, 10-2, in five innings. Youngstown State improves to 33-11 overall and 26-6 in Horizon League play while the Vikings fall to 10-34 overall and 5-27 in league play.

Tied at 1-1 in the eighth, Jillian Jakse induced a one-out walk and Schumacher clubbed the first pitch she saw over the left field fence for the walkoff home run, her fourth home run of the season.

Elle Buffenbarger picked up 17th victory of the season by tossing a complete-game with nine strikeouts. 

The Penguins got on the board first on Alex DeLeon's run-scoring fielder's choice that plated Yazmine Romero, who singled and advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt by Maddi Lusk.

The Vikings tied the game in the top of the third inning on a sacrifice fly by Mackenzie Tucker.

The Penguins threatened but left the bases loaded in the third, stranded two more in the fourth and hit into inning-ending double plays in the sixth and seventh innings.

In the opener, the Penguins scored four in the bottom of the first and five in the bottom of the second to go up 9-1 after the Vikings took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first.

DeLeon singled home Romero with a single down the left-field line to tie the game at 1-1, and Nikki Saibene tagged a three-run home run to center to put the Penguins up 4-1 after one inning.

In the second inning, Schumacher ripped a bases-clearing double to left-center to plate Lusk, DeLeon and Jaske to give the Penguins a 7-1 edge. 

Saibene belted her second home run of the game, a two-run shot to center field, and gave YSU a 9-1 advantage.

After the Vikings scored one in the top of the fifth, Lusk's single to right field scored Hailey Niederkohr, who doubled, to enforce the mercy rule.

Youngstown State closes out the regular season with a four-game series at Northern Kentucky, May 7-8, in Highland Heights, Ky.