By Robert Hayes
The Youngstown State University softball team hosted the Wright State University Raiders on Tuesday evening, and split a doubleheader.
The Penguins took the first game by a score of 2-0, then fell in the second game by a score of 14-6.
YSU coach Brian Campbell said he thought the team played well in the first game.
“I’m not going to take anything away from our performance in the first game, but in the second game we just ran into the one inning there,” he said. “It’s a learning process, and we’ll take what we learned today moving into tomorrow.”
The inning that Campbell was referring to was an eight spot the Raiders (17-26, 4-10) put up in the top of the fifth inning to get them an 11-6 lead over YSU.
This occured after the Penguins (21-21, 9-3) had a 6-3 lead.
Dani Dadig brought in Maddi Lusk on an RBI single in the bottom of the second inning for the first of YSU’s six runs. Alex DeLeon scored due to a throwing error on the same play, and the Penguins led 2-0 going into the top of the third.
WSU scored three in the top of the third, but YSU charged right back thanks to a solo home run by Lexi Zappitelli to tie up the ballgame. In the bottom of the fourth inning, Grace Cea knocked an RBI double to score Yazmine Romero and Dadig. Cea eventually scored on a fielding error later in the inning, but that represented YSU’s last run in the second game.
Dadig had three hits for the first time in her career in the second game. Although she wasn’t happy with the end result, she was proud of her performance.
“I was just staying focused,” Dadig said. “We’ve been putting in extra work, so just really staying focused and seeing the ball, and hitting it to the big part of the field and working those gaps.”
Dadig said it has been exciting, especially since she has been struggling.
“I had an injury last semester, so just really working through that injury was the toughest part this season because it still bothers me sometimes. But it was a great day at the plate, but obviously we want that win at the end of the day,” she said.
Dadig was just looking for contact.
“I was trying to put the ball in play,” Dadig said. “I knew that I wanted to get my teammates into scoring position and move them over.”
YSU played a great game earlier in the afternoon, as Addy Jarvis pitched another dime for the Penguins. The 2-0 victory represented Jarvis’s sixth shutout of the season. She also recorded 10 strikeouts for her 11th victory of the season.
For Campbell, it was just another excellent performance out of Jarvis.
“She got in a good groove, and was able to keep the off balance through those innings,” Campbell said.
Cea absolutely crushed a solo home run to left field in the bottom of the fourth inning for her fifth home run of the season. Maddi Lusk followed that up with a double, and she was later moved to third base on a ground ball. This set up a well executed squeeze play by DeLeon, which gave YSU a 2-0 lead.