The Horizon League Softball Championship will be in Youngstown for the second consecutive season! Youngstown State completed a weekend of sweep of Robert Morris by beating the Colonials 6-5 and 3-2 in a pair of extra-inning games on Sunday at the YSU Softball Complex.

The Penguins will be the third seed in the tournament and will serve as the host by virtue of being the highest seed that meets facility hosting criteria. Oakland, the regular-season champion, and Cleveland State will be the top two seeds but are unable to accommodate the tournament.

After Green Bay went 1-2 in the final weekend of the regular season at Oakland to finish with a final mark of 15-10 in conference play, Youngstown State needed to take two of three against Robert Morris to host. The Penguins won 4-2 on Saturday evening, and they won two one-run games on Sunday to finish with a 17-9 record in Horizon League play.

The series against the Colonials was originally scheduled to be played at Robert Morris, but it was moved to Youngstown due to field conditions. As a result, YSU played as the visiting team on its home field.

The Horizon League Softball Championship will be Wednesday through Saturday, and Youngstown State's opening game will be Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. against sixth-seeded Northern Kentucky.

Game One

In game one of Sunday's doubleheader, the Penguins jumped out to a five-run cushion but had to go to extra innings in the 6-5 victory. Yazmine Romero had three hits in the contest and scored the winning run in the top of the eighth inning. Conchetta Rinaldi and Grace Cea both had two hits, and Sophie Howell pitched eight innings to earn her seventh victory of the season.

The Penguins went ahead 4-0 with a four-run third inning, which Rinaldi highlighted with a two-run homer. After Romero led off with a single, Rinaldi followed two batters later with a two-run blast to left for her sixth home run of the season. After a flyout, Nikki Saibene got the offense going again with a two-out single to left. A walk to Avrey Schumacher and a passed ball put two runners in scoring position, and Cea came through with a two-run single to left that put YSU up four.

Hailey Niederkohr was hit by a pitch, advanced on a passed ball and scored a Romero single in the top of the sixth to extend YSU's advantage to 5-0.

After having three hits through the first five innings against Howell, the Colonials had Elle Buffenbarger timed up out of the bullpen in the bottom of the sixth. Taylor Rhinehart greeted her with a solo homer, and Anna Resnik followed up a walk with a two-run shot to quickly make the score 5-3. After Bailee Bertani's single, Howell came back in and allowed back-to-back singles before retiring three straight batters. The tying run came across on a sacrifice fly by Erika Bell.

Both teams left runners in scoring position in the seventh, and YSU got the winning run across in the eighth. Romero drew a one-out walk, and a two-out single by Rinaldi put runners at the corners. Romero then came home on a wild pitch during Hailey Roach's eight-pitch at bat to make the score 6-5, and Howell worked around a two-out walk in the bottom of the inning to finish the win.

Game Two

In game two, the Penguins rode Buffenbarger's right arm to the tune of 213 pitches in a 10-inning, complete-game victory. Schumacher delivered the winning hit with an RBI single to left with two outs in the 10th.

After the tough relief appearance in game one, Buffenbarger had a solid bounce-back performance in a starting role in the nightcap. She allowed two runs on nine hits and six walks while striking out 13 of the 49 batters she faced.

Offensively, Elyssa Imler was 3-for-4, and Nikki Saibene was 2-for-5 to account for five of Youngstown State's 10 hits in the game.

Bree Kohler got YSU's offense going with a leadoff walk in the top of the fifth, and Imler followed with a bunt single to put two runners on with nobody out. Taylor Truran then walked with one out to load the bases, and Kohler scored the game's first run on a sacrifice fly by Rinaldi.

Robert Morris tied the score in the bottom half of the inning when Rhinehart brought in Alaina York with a two-out RBI single. That was the Colonials' first hit off of Buffenbarger since there were two outs in the first.

The Penguins answered right back with a run in the top of the sixth to take a 2-1 lead. Saibene led off with a single, and, with one out, pinch-runner Syndey Payne stole second and advanced to third on an error. Grace Cea then followed with an RBI single to left that played Payne with the go-ahead run.

Robert Morris forced extra innings again by scoring a run in the bottom of the seventh. Alaina Koutsogiani drew a one-out walk, stole second, advanced to third on an error and scored on a two-out RBI single by Rhinehart.

Both teams had runners in scoring position in scoreless eighth and ninth innings before YSU came up with the winning run in the 10th. Roach hit a one-out single to right and advanced to second on a ground out to set the stage for Schumacher. On the seventh pitch of her at bat, she hit a single to left center that plated Roach.

The Colonials loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the 10th with a walk, a single and an error, but Buffenbarger made sure she got the win in her final regular-season contest in the circle. She struck out pinch-hitter Catalina Saxen looking on a 3-2 pitch for the second out, and YSU's fifth-year senior got Charlotte Grover to pop out for the final out.

For more information on the Horizon League Softball Championship, visit horizonleague.org.