Youngstown, Ohio – Freshman Ayla Ray and senior Taylor Truran each hit home runs to lead the Youngstown State softball team (10-27, 2-6 Horizon League) to a 7-4 win in game two of a doubleheader split against Purdue Fort Wayne (9-17, 5-3) on Thursday afternoon. The Penguins dropped the first game, 6-0.

Brian Campbell also earned his 400th win as head coach at Youngstown State.

Ray went 2-for-3 with a three-run home run and a three RBIs to pace the Penguins offense that collected 12 hits.

Sophomore Maci Boggess scattered six hits and allowed just two earned runs to pick up her second win of the season.

Sophomore Macy Littler, junior Bree Kohler, and senior Elyssa Imler each had two hits for the Penguins.

Youngstown State jumped out to an early lead after Lydia Wilkerson's ground-rule double plated Littler, who singled and advanced to second on a ground out, with the game's first run in the bottom of the first.

Truran's two-out solo home run in the bottom of the second inning extended the Penguins advantage to 2-0.

The Mastodons knotted the game at 2-2 with a pair of runs in the top of the third, but the Penguins exploded for four runs in the bottom of the fourth to regain the lead 6-2.

Junior Ashlyn Bishop led off the frame with a single, and Littler reached on an error to put runners at first and second. Kohler laced a single down the left-field line to score Bishop, and Ayla hammered a 2-2 pitch over the left-center field wall for her second home run of the year.

The Penguins pushed their lead to 7-4 in the bottom of the sixth when Kohler scored on Wilkerson's fielder's choice.

Purdue Fort Wayne tacked on two runs in the top of the seventh before Boggess induced two flyouts to end the game.

In the opener, the Penguins mustered just four hits – two by Wilkerson and one each from Ray and Bishop, a triple – and Kelsey Ogin struck out six in the loss.

The Penguins and Mastodons close out the series, Friday, April 4. First pitch is set for 2 p.m. at the Covelli Sports Complex.