HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. – Northern Kentucky softball is set for its first road series in nine days and will face Youngstown State in three games at YSU Softball Field.
 
The teams play a doubleheader on Friday, April 15 at 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. They return Saturday, April 16 for a single game at 1 p.m.
 
NKU enters the series with a 16-23 (5-10 Horizon League) record while Youngstown State is 21-17 (6-4).
 
QUICK HITTERS
• The Norse concluded a five-game home stand with a 5-4 defeat of Marshall at Frank Ignatius Greiner Softball Field. The Thundering Herd held a 7-0 advantage all-time in the series until NKU broke through via a 12-hit barrage in Game Two of their April 12 doubleheader.
 
• NKU won an extra innings game in the first game of an April 5 doubleheader at Cleveland State. The Norse prevailed 4-3 in nine innings. It was the program's first extra-innings victory since Feb. 15, 2020 against Western Michigan, a game NKU won 7-6 in eight innings.
 
• NKU lost seven straight games earlier this season but snapped the skid with a 4-2 home victory over Western Illinois on March 15.
 
• The Norse received 39 votes in the #HLSB preseason poll and were picked to finish sixth.
 
• Kendyl McKeough leads the Horizon League in home runs (10) and is second in doubles (11) and RBI (25). She's third in hits (38), at-bats (119) and slugging percentage (.664) while checking in at fifth in runs scored (22).
 
• Lauryn Hicks picked up her second save this season in the 5-4 victory over Marshall April 12. The next day she was honored by the Horizon League with the 2022 Bobby Fong Award for representing the conference's core values of integrity, respect and leadership.
 
• Sydni Barnes went 3-for-4 with three hits (including a double), two runs scored and an RBI in NKU's 5-4 defeat of Marshall. Barnes scored the game-winner in the bottom of the sixth.
 
• Alicia Flores pitched her first collegiate shutout in NKU's 1-0 walk-off triumph over Robert Morris April 10. The freshman tossed a two-hitter and struck out 11 while walking just one.
 
• Arrington Walker helped NKU to the 1-0 walk-off victory by hitting the game-winning RBI. The teams were scoreless outing Walker approached the plate as a pinch hitter on two outs in the bottom of the seventh. She singled up the right side and drove in Maddie Lacer for the win.
 
• Kendyl McKeough delivered NKU's most recent walk-off home run. Tennessee Tech scored two runs in the top of the seventh inning of their Blue Hose Invitational game Feb. 12 to knot the score at six. Enter Keough with the game-winning homer for the 6-5 Norse victory.
 
• Tatum Biddle matched an NKU record that had not been replicated since 2009. Biddle hit two triples in the five-inning, 21-1 rout of South Carolina State Feb. 12. Biddle leads the Horizon League with three triples this season.
 
SCOUTING YOUNGSTOWN STATE: The Penguins are coming off a sweep of St. Bonaventure in which fifth-year player Yazmine Romero tied the program's all-time hits record, coach Brian Campbell notched his 600^th career victory and sophomore Sophie Howell pitched her first career shutout, a complete-game two-hitter. Romero leads the Horizon League in batting average (.403) and hits (54) and ranks second in runs scored (24). Pitching ace Elle Buffenbarger heads the conference in wins (14) and batters struck out (154) and has the No. 3 ERA (2.73). Youngstown State enters the Norse series with an 8-4 record on its home field.