YOUNGSTOWN — The record-breaking offense and revitalized hitting approach that helped carry Youngstown State to the Horizon League regular season title seemed to desert the Penguins at the most inopportune time this week.
After dropping into the elimination bracket with their loss Thursday, YSU’s season came to an end at the hands of No. 3 seed Robert Morris on Friday, as the top-seeded Penguins were eliminated from the Horizon League tournament 14-2 in five innings at YSU Softball Complex.
“I know presently, the tournament didn’t go our way,” YSU head coach Brian Campbell said. “But we’re proud of these young ladies and what they accomplished this year. [This loss] doesn’t define who they are as young ladies, and it doesn’t define their careers. It doesn’t define any of that. They played hard, and I think that’s the biggest thing.”
This year, YSU broke single-season program records for team batting average, total runs, total hits, RBIs and doubles. Yet, the Penguins mustered just two runs off 14 hits in their two tournament games.
Against Robert Morris, YSU had five hits, scoring its only runs on a two-run home run by Selah Moyer in the bottom of the second inning, as Madelyn Coleman and Kaitlyn Molitoris combined in the circle to limit the Penguins’ hitters.
Meanwhile, the Colonials blasted away at the Penguins’ pitchers, racking up their 14 runs off 17 hits. The 14 runs scored by RMU are the most YSU has given up all year.
Robert Morris’ Courtney Poulich showed why she was named Horizon League Player of the Year after a historic campaign, going 4-for-4 against the Penguins, which included two doubles, six RBIs and a grand slam in the top of the second inning that helped open the floodgates for RMU’s hitters.
YSU also committed five errors, which led to seven runs for the Colonials. RMU scored five runs in the second inning, four runs in the third and four runs in the fifth inning to put the game away.
But rather than dwell on the factors that ended the team’s season, Campbell preferred to highlight the positives from YSU’s 2026 campaign.
Last year, coming off a regular season title in 2024, the Penguins finished with just 14 wins and were last in the conference standings, which saw them miss the tournament entirely.
One year later, YSU turned it around and was back on top of the Horizon League, finishing with a 31-20 overall record to win its third regular season championship in the last six years. It’s the eighth time in school history that the Penguins have won at least 30 games in a season.
“I’m proud of this team — all 23 of them, proud of what they’ve done this year and accomplished,” Campbell said. “They got a ring on their finger. They battled through this year, and that’s what I’m going to focus on right now because I think that it’s important for these young ladies to get that recognized.
“It’s easy to go one way, but I want to take it the other way and say I’m proud of them. They should be proud of themselves, too, because from what it was last year, for them to be able to come in here and really turn the program around and lead it in the right direction, it’s something that should be [celebrated].”
YSU’s loss to RMU marks what is likely the final career game for the Penguins’ six seniors, including Kennedy Dean, Emma Gilkerson, Bree Kohler, Ashlyn Bishop, Grace Pilaczynski and Gabbie Evans.
Dean, Kohler, Bishop and Pilacynzski were each a part of YSU’s 2024 and 2026 regular season championship teams, while Gilkerson won a regular season and tournament title at Cleveland State before she transferred to Youngstown.
“They mean the world to me. These young ladies have had a chance to represent the program, and they’re walking away with the ‘24 and ‘26 championships,” Campbell said. “They’re going to go out and do wonderful things in the world, and I think that’s the most important thing when you close a chapter of playing college softball and close the chapter on getting your degree. All six of them are getting their degree, and that’s the most important thing.”
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