Several former high school softball standouts from the Big Time Sports coverage area will be showcased on the national college stage later this week. Brooke Albaugh (Tusky Valley), Emma Gilkerson (Strasburg), Melissa Holzopfel (Perry), Meridith Rankl (Tuslaw), Kylie Gorsuch (Green), Sophie Spellman (North Canton Hoover) and Kiera Frascone (Tuslaw) helped lead Cleveland State University to the 2024 Horizon League Softball Championship which concluded Sunday in Youngstown. A marathon day capped a marathon week as Cleveland State emerged victorious by capturing the program's third Horizon League Championship and the first since 2009 with a 6-1 victory over Northern Kentucky in the second game of the day at Youngstown State's Softball Complex. Cleveland State advanced to the championship final as the winner's bracket representative, needing only one victory to claim the title. NKU forced the deciding “if necessary” game with a 5-4 win in the first game of the day before the Vikings captured game two to claim the tournament title and NCAA Division I Tournament bid. Cleveland State (22-24) will play host and No. 2 seed Oklahoma (49-6) Friday at 8 p.m. in a double-elimination regional contest in Norman. The game can be seen on ESPNU. Holzopfel was named the Tournament MVP after a stellar performance both in the pitching circle and at the plate. Albaugh, Gorsuch, Frascone and Becky Horosky joined Holzopfel in earning All-Tournament Team honors. Cleveland State used a five-run outburst in the fifth inning of game two to seal the championship victory. The game was tied 1-1 going into the fifth before the Vikings strung together six hits to bring home five runs in the bottom of the inning. Gorsuch and Frascone recorded back-to-back singles to put two on with one out. Albaugh followed with the first of two key hits in the inning as she roped a line drive down the right field line for a triple which scored both runners and gave the Vikings a 3-1 lead. Jenna Deang kept the rally going with a single that scored Albaugh to give CSU a three-run cushion. Holzopfel followed with the knockout blow, a two-run home run to left field that was gone the moment it left the bat. Holzopfel retired six of the final seven batters she faced to finish off the game and claim the victory. She went the distance in both games, allowing just four hits and one earned run in the clincher. Holzopfel earned Tournament MVP honors after throwing 40 total innings and allowing just five earned runs for the week (0.87 ERA) along with 35 strikeouts. Offensively, she hit safely in every single game including the home run in the clinching victory. In the first game, NKU jumped out to a 4-1 lead early before the Vikings rallied in the sixth inning. Two of the first three batters reached on a hit and a fielder's choice which put two on with one out. Hurosky launched a home run to dead center field which cleared the bases and tied the game at four apiece. NKU responded with a run in the top of the seventh to re-take the lead 5-4. Cleveland State was one hit away from claiming the title with two runners on in scoring position in the bottom of the seventh, but NKU was able to work out of the jam to force the deciding second game. Hurosky had a huge week offensively, totaling five hits including three for extra bases, and five RBI. Albaugh recorded seven hits, including a 3-for-4 effort in the clinching game, and drove in four runs. Gorsuch recorded five hits and an RBI, including a multi-hit game in the semifinal win over Robert Morris. Frascone hit safely in every game, totaling six hits for the tournament. Cleveland State was up to the task on Saturday morning as the Vikings defeated Robert Morris 7-0 to advance to the Horizon League Softball Championship Game. Albaugh led off the bottom of the first with a single, and Hurosky followed with an RBI hit to score Albaugh to open the scoring. A walk to Gilkerson loaded the bases, which brought Peyton Mueller-Stentz to the plate. She reached on a fielder's choice to bring home the second run of the inning. Spellman reached on a dropped third strike, which allowed Hurosky to score on a wild pitch. Gorsuch followed with an RBI single to plate the fourth run of the inning as Mueller-Stenz scored on the play. Cleveland State continued the offensive momentum with two more runs in the second inning. Holzopfel helped her own cause with an RBI single to left field to score Albaugh. Two batters later, Gilkerson reached on an infield hit which brought Holzopfel home and expanded the Viking advantage to 6-0 through two innings. Gilkerson provided the game-winning home run in the sixth inning to propel the Vikings to a 2-1 victory in their tournament opener last Wednesday. The win was the first postseason victory for CSU since the 2015-16 season. Gilkerson delivered the deciding blow with one out in the bottom of the sixth, as she launched a solo shot to left center field to break the 1-1 tie. It was her team-leading sixth home run of the season. After a weather delay washed out play on Thursday, it took extra innings to finally determine a winner between Cleveland State and Oakland in a winner's bracket semifinal on Friday afternoon. The Vikings prevailed 2-1 in 12 innings thanks to timely hitting and a stellar performance in the circle from Holzopfel. The game began with both teams scoring single runs in the first inning. Albaugh led off the game with an infield single and was sacrificed to second. With two outs, Hurosky laced a line drive down the right field line which carried just far enough to score Albaugh from second base, as she slid into the back of the plate just ahead of the relay throw. The play was reviewed and upheld as video replay showed Albaugh slide in just ahead of the tag from Oakland catcher Jen Krizka. The Golden Grizzlies responded with a run of their own in the bottom of the first, but there was no more scoring until the 12 th when the Vikings scratched out a run for the 2-1 victory. Holzopfel became the first student-athlete to be named to the Horizon League first team as both a pitcher and a position player. Holzopfel finished the season with strong numbers in both pitching and hitting categories. She led the league in strikeouts with 117 and is second among league participants with a 1.84 ERA. Opponents hit just .186 against her which was good for the third-best mark in the league. Offensively, she finished with a .382 batting average in league play, while ranking third in the league with 23 RBI and eighth with a .632 slugging percentage. Albaugh was also named to the first team after hitting .402 in league games, which ranks eighth among all eligible position players. Albaugh led the league in runs scored with 25 and in doubles with 12. She ranks second with a .671 slugging percentage and fifth with a 1.122 OPS. Gilkerson earned second-team all-league honors as she finished with a .391 batting average in league play. She ranked third in the league with a .500 on-base percentage and fourth with a .656 slugging percentage. Albaugh was also named to the Horizon League Softball All-Academic Team earlier this month. The award combines academic excellence and athletic performance and is voted on by the league's Faculty Athletics Representatives. Albaugh earned a spot on the All-Academic team for the first time after being named to the league's Academic Honor Roll for four consecutive semesters. She has been named to the Dean's List in seven straight semesters and holds a 3.97 GPA as a Health Science Pre-PA major. Albaugh leads the team with a .321 batting average and ranks first in the league doubles with 14. Meanwhile, the University of Toledo softball team almost pulled off a come-from-behind win but fell 9-7 to Ball State in the win-or-go-home third round of action at the 2024 Mid-American Conference Tournament Friday evening at Firestone Stadium in Akron. After trailing by eight runs, the No. 4 seed Rockets (26-23) rallied to score six runs in the final two frames but could not complete the comeback. Tuscarawas Central Catholic High grad and Toledo junior Sophia Knight (15-12) started and took the loss, giving up three runs on seven hits. Another pitcher came into the circle in the third and gave up six runs on four hits before Knight re-entered in the sixth. Toledo finished its season with a 26-23 record following its first appearance in the postseason since 2019. Toledo nearly pulled off a big upset over No. 1 seed Miami on Thursday, but after nine hours and three rain delays, the RedHawks rallied from four runs down to pull out a 5-4 walk-off victory in the bottom of the seventh in second- round action. Knight came in as relief in the third and struck out five batters while giving up five hits in the loss. The Rockets took down No. 5 seed Central Michigan, 6-3, to open the tournament Wednesday and advanced to the winners’ bracket in the double-elimination tournament. Knight allowed three hits and one run in four innings pitched for the win.

Zoe Johnson’s college softball career has come to an end. The 2019 Garaway High School graduate recently finished a fifth year of softball as she works on her master’s degree in Sports Marketing and Management at the University of Northwestern Ohio located in Lima. The graduate student catcher had another solid season at UNOH, hitting .326 with 10 home runs, 53 RBIs, 34 runs scored and seven stolen bases. On the first day of the double elimination Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference at Pacesetter Park in Sylvania, UNOH split their first two games and had to fight their way through the loser's bracket on day two. The two-seed Racers made quick work of their first matchup against seven-seed Cornerstone with a run-rule victory, 8-0, in five innings. Johnson hit a two-run home run in the first game and drove in four runs altogether. In game two, three-seed Aquinas stormed back from a 5-1 deficit to upset UNOH 7-5. Johnson added another round tripper and drove in two runs in the loss. The Racers season ended at the hands of Cornerstone 2-0 as they were no-hit. Johnson earned 1st Team All-Academic, 1st Team All-Conference & 1st Team Conference Champions of Character in the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference. The WHAC Champions of Character Team is made up of one player from each school who best represents the five NAIA Core Values: integrity, respect, responsibility, sportsmanship, and servant leadership. In February, Johnson was given the opportunity to intern at Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas as part of UNOH’s Sports Marketing and Management program. It was the second straight Super Bowl Johnson worked. As a senior in 2023, Johnson hit .284 with five home runs, 24 RBIs, 24 runs scored and four stolen bases. Three of those stolen bases came in one game as she tied the program record for most in a single contest against Judson University. Johnson was named the Wolverine-Goosier Athletic Conference Catcher of the Year in 2021. Before attending UNHO, Johnson was a First Team All-Ohioan in 2019 at Garaway after claiming First Team East District and Inter-Valley Conference Player of the Year earlier.