Youngstown, Ohio — The Youngstown State softball team's 2024 season came to a close on Friday as it fell 6-3 to Northern Kentucky in an elimination game in the Horizon League Softball Championship.
The Penguins were 15-3 on their home field coming into the tournament as they won the Horizon League's regular-season title, but they fell twice as the top seed in the field on Friday. YSU lost 3-1 to Robert Morris in a game that started at 12:05 p.m., and the contest against the Norse began at 8:50 p.m.
The nightcap was a pitchers' duel through four innings as neither YSU's Devan Ryan or NKU's Lauryn Hicks allowed a hit until the fifth. Norse second baseman Sydni Barnes led off the fifth with a double, and NKU went on to score all six of its runs in the inning.
The Penguins scored a run in the sixth and got a two-run homer from Autumn Behlke in the seventh but couldn't complete the comeback.
Youngstown State's season ends with a 36-17 record, and the 36 wins tied the program record for most victories in a season.
Ryan got a big strikeout to get out of the top of the fourth with a runner on third, but the Norse broke through for six runs on five hits in the fifth.
Barnes started the top of the fifth with a double off of Lydia Wilkerson's glove at third for the first hit in the game for either team, and it sparked NKU's offense. A sacrifice bunt moved Barnes to third, and she scored on an infield error for the game's first run. Mack Brown then walked to put two runners on for the top of the order, and Ella LeMonier doubled to left to plate Tatum Biddle and make the score 2-0. That was Ryan's last batter, and Sophie Howell came in with the threat still on.
The Penguins got the second out of the inning on runner interference, and Olivia Pastin followed with a two-out, two-run single up the middle to increase the margin to 4-0. After two walks, Barnes' second hit of the inning brought in the fifth and sixth runs of the inning.
Conchetta Rinaldi led off the bottom of the fifth with a single to right for YSU's first hit, but Hicks got outs from the next three hitters to protect the six-run cushion.
The Penguins got on the board in the bottom of the sixth behind a pair of doubles. Sara Fessler led off the frame with a double down the leftfield line, and she scored two batters later when Kennedy Dean doubled off the left-field wall.
In the seventh, the Penguins did their damage with two outs. Hicks retired the first two batters of the inning, but Hailey Niederkohr extended the inning with a two-strike single to center. Behlke then hit a 2-2 pitcher over the wall in centerfield to get the Penguins within 6-3, but they got no closer.
Both Ryan and Howell were charged with three runs, and two of the runs against Ryan were unearned.
Hicks went the distance for the Norse, allowing three runs on five hits while striking out six.
