Indianapolis, Ind. – The Youngstown State softball team swept the season series from IU Indy with a 9-6 victory and claimed the outright 2026 Horizon League Softball Regular Season Championship on Sunday afternoon at the IU Indy Softball Complex.
The Penguins, who improve to 29-17 overall and 12-3 in Horizon League play, earned the No. 1 seed in the 2026 Horizon League Softball Championship, which will be played at the Covelli Sports Complex, May 6-9. The Jaguars fall to 7-37 overall and 4-11 in league play.
Sophomore Bella Meyer went 3-for-4 with a double, three runs scored and an RBI while Naomi Bottomlee and Emma Gilkerson each went 2-for-3. Bottomlee scored twice while Gilkerson doubled and drive in two runs.
Senior Kennedy Dean became just the fourth YSU player to hit at least 12 home runs in a season with a three-run blast in the second inning. She needs one more to tie the single-season record and two to break the mark.
The Penguins jumped out to an early 8-0 advantage after scoring three times in the first and adding five runs in the second. Meyer and Bottomlee opened the game with a pair of singles and Gilkerson drove in Meyer with a single through the left side. Tai Turner's infield single plated Bottomlee and Gilkerson scored on Ayla Ray's ground out to second.
Meyer's run-scoring double to right-center field brought home Bree Kohler to open the scoring in the second frame. Bottomlee drove in Meyer with a single to left field, and after a walk to Turner, Dean crushed a three-run home run to left field to the Penguins up, 8-0.
The Jaguars plated runs in the third and fourth innings to trim the YSU lead to 8-2, but the Penguins added an insurance run in the top of the sixth to extend the lead to 9-2. Gilkerson ripped a one-out double to left field that plated Meyer for the seven-run advantage.
IU Indy never gave up and scored four times in the bottom of the seventh, but Isabella O'Brien was able to complete the game to pick up her eighth win of the season.
Youngstown State closes out the regular season with a three-game series at Oakland, May 1-2, in Rochester, Mich.
