By Robert Hayes
It was an unlucky day for the Youngstown State University softball team, as it seems like every ball they hit went directly to a Wright State University player in a 4-2 loss against the Raiders.
“They were squaring it up fairly well, they just weren’t hitting the holes, that’s the same thing I said to the team,” Penguins coach Brian Campbell said. “We had opportunities at second and third and we need to push those across.”
The Penguins (21-22, 9-4) did have their fair share of chances to take a lead, but YSU left eight runners on base, which ended up being one of the deciding factors of the game.
“We were unlucky on a few of those shots, they were just good hits straight to people,” Campbell said.
YSU did jump on Wright State early, when Yazmine Romero started off the game with a triple, which was followed up an RBI double from Lexi Zappitelli. Later in the inning, Tatum Christy blasted a single toward right field to score Zappitelli and make it a 2-0 ballgame after the first inning.
It would Raiders (18-26, 5-10) from there on, as they would score twice in the second, and once in the third and fourth inning.
Paige Geanangel would go for 6.1 innings, while allowing three earned runs on seven hits, with a walk and three strikeouts.
Zappitelli would led YSU with two hits, and an RBI with a run scored.
This weekend is the yearly bye week for YSU, and Campbell believes the timing couldn’t have been better.
“We are going to do things, such as a practice, but just to mentally take a step back and gather ourselves a little bit,” Campbell said. “I couldn’t be more proud of how these girls put a lot of stuff together.”
YSU does enter the bye week as one of the top teams in the Horizon League, but with only nine games left, six of them being on the road, the final stretch is quickly approaching.
The Penguins resume action April 23 with a doubleheader at Northern Kentucky University, starting a 2 p.m.
