Boiling Springs, N.C. – Senior Kennedy Dean went 6-for-8 on the day with four doubles, a home run, five runs scored and six runs batted in as the Youngstown State softball team earned a split on day one of the 2026 Runnin' Bulldog Classic.
The Penguins (1-1) lost the opener to Tarleton State, 8-7, and knocked off Gardner-Webb, 16-6, for their first victory over the season.
Against the Bulldogs, the Penguins hammered out 15 hits, including five doubles, a triple, and a home run.
Dean tied a career high with six runs batted in while going 4-for-4 with two doubles, a home run and three runs scored.
Junior Tai Turner went 2-for-4 with a triple, four runs scored and three RBIs while senior Bree Kohler 2-for-3 with three runs batted in and two doubles.
Freshman Paiton Murphy picked up her first career win while striking out four in six innings pitched.
Youngstown State jumped out to 7-1 lead through two-and-a-half innings after posting three runs in the top of the second and four in the top of the third.
The Bulldogs trimmed the Penguins lead to 8-5 after five innings, but the Penguins offense exploded for four runs in both the sixth and seventh innings to put the game away.
In the opener, the Penguins rattled off 14 hits, and six different players posted multi-hit games in the one-run loss.
Wilkerson went 3-for-4 with a run batted in while Dean had two doubles and two runs scored. Emma Gilkerson went 2-for-4 with a home run and scored twice while Selah Moyer, Ayla Ray and Lelia Staszak each has two hits.
Sophomore pitcher Isabella O'Brien fanned nine in six innings pitched, and she retired 11 straight batters from the second through the fifth innings.
After falling behind 2-0 in the first, the Penguins took a 3-2 lead after Dean scored on a wild pitch in the bottom of the second, Gilkerson tied the game with a solo home run in the bottom of the third and Ray double to right-center to plate Moyer.
Bree Kohler's single to right field scored Dean extend the YSU lead to 4-2 after four innings.
Tarleton State's Braylin Panhill's pinch-hit three-run home run in the top of sixth inning gave the Texans a 5-4 lead.
The Penguins regained the lead, 7-5, with a three-run sixth. Wilkerson's single up the middle that plated Staszak knotted the game, and Moyer's double to center scored pinch-runner Paiton Murphy with the go-ahead run. Ray's single up the middle drove in Gilkerson with an insurance run to give the Penguins a two-run cushion, 7-5.
The Texas, however, scored three times in the top of the seventh to come away with the victory.
The Penguins face Furman and Gardner-Webb on Saturday at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. respectively.
