Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes. YSU's Elyssa Imler celebrates with teammates in the Penguins' dugout during a game against Detroit Mercy earlier this season. Imler was named Horizon League Player of the Year on Tuesday ahead of the start of the conference tournament.

YOUNGSTOWN — In 2021, Youngstown State won the Horizon League regular season title and earned the league’s No. 1 seed heading into the conference tournament.

The Penguins ultimately came up short of winning the tournament title and clinching an NCAA bid, but “the past is the past,” according to head coach Brian Campbell.

After replicating that success this season — YSU just clinched the 2024 regular season title and the tournament’s No. 1 seed against IUPUI last week — the team is hoping to change its fortunes this time around as it hosts the Horizon League tournament championship this week at the YSU Softball Complex.

“It’s a whole different team, it’s a whole different unit,” said Campbell, who was announced as Horizon League Coach of the Year for the third time in his career. “I don’t think you reflect back to that because if you reflect back to that, there might only be two or three players on this team that even know what you’re talking about. To me, it’s 2024 and it’s the experience of what we have now. They won the conference, the 2021 team won the conference, but we’re writing our own chapter in 2024. … We’re here, we’re now and that’s what it should be.”

Led by newly-crowned Horizon League Player of the Year Elyssa Imler and All-Horizon League First Team pitcher Sophie Howell, the Penguins have topped the Horizon League standings all season long, going wire-to-wire since the start of conference play back on March 16.

“It was — I don’t know — I wasn’t expecting it, so it’s a lot of emotions all at once,” Imler said upon learning of her Player of the Year selection. “I was happy, excited, (in) disbelief, honestly at first, but all the hard work has paid off, so that feels good.”

Finishing 36-15 overall and 20-4 in the conference, the Penguins made history by tying the school single-season record for most wins.

YSU opened Horizon League play with nine straight wins that were part of an overall 11-game winning streak. The team swept each of its first three series against Detroit Mercy, Purdue Fort Wayne and Green Bay, while also sweeping Robert Morris and IUPUI and getting series wins against Cleveland State and Northern Kentucky. Its only setback came in a road series defeat to Oakland at the beginning of April.

“We’ve just focused on one game at a time,” Campbell said. “When we went through it, one of the things we’ve talked about as a team is to worry about what’s in front of you, don’t worry about what’s down the road. They took on that mentality. We were getting in a close race there for a bit, but if we would have looked at the result at the end, then we weren’t doing what we were supposed to do.”

The Penguins have seen different players step up in several different situations, which has helped them maintain their advantage at the top of the conference.

In the series opener against Cleveland State on April 25, YSU went into extra innings with the Vikings tied 0-0, but a double from senior Jillian Jakse scored All-Horizon League Second Team and All-Freshman Team selection Lydia Wilkerson from first base, which ended up being the game-winning run.

Then against the Norse, Wilkerson’s two-out, bases loaded single helped the Penguins walk off a 2-1 victory.

The team has also had dominant pitching from seniors Sophie Howell and Devan Ryan, which included a pair of gems in a doubleheader sweep of Robert Morris.

Explosive hitting performances, like fifth-year Sara Fessler hitting two home runs against Green Bay, have also been commonplace.

Overall, YSU has been at the top or near the top of the conference in batting, pitching and defense all year. That versatility and ability to win in a variety of different ways has been instrumental for the Penguins.

“We’re well-rounded, I would say. It’s not one thing that can help us win,” Imler said. “Our offense is great, but our defense is also great backing up our pitchers. Our pitchers do a great job. They’ve stepped up a lot this year and really helped us in those tight games.”

But the tournament is different from the regular season, and mindset is critical at this time of year, especially if the Penguins want to win the tournament title and clinch that NCAA tournament bid.

“I feel like mostly, you gotta get in the right mindset because in the tournament, it’s anybody’s game. It’s not like hey, we’re the first seed and we play a lower seed, it’s not in our hands right away,” Imler said. “So we still gotta work hard, come to practice, cheer each other on and push each other still.”

The Horizon League remains as deep as it’s ever been, so the Penguins will have their work cut out for them this week, despite being the host and top seed. Oakland is the No. 2 seed, while defending tournament champion Northern Kentucky is the No. 4 seed.

As the No. 1 seed, the Penguins have a first-round bye and don’t play until Thursday at noon, when they will face the winner of today’s first game between the Norse and No. 5 seed Robert Morris.

“With the Horizon League being such a good quality conference, No. 1 through No. 6 has always been very competitive,” Campbell said. “Talking to the team on Monday, my words to them was don’t change your mentality. It should not be any different going into the tournament compared to the regular season. We won 36 games to tie the school record and 20 games in conference. Why would we want to change any mentality or anything we do to prepare ourselves for the games? Just continue what you’ve been doing all year.

“I think when you get to the tournament, you have six good quality teams here. You throw out what you did in the regular season, because it’s just about what’s in front of you. It’s a very competitive conference and a lot of different seeds have won the conference (tournament). I think that’s something that you don’t think about and you move past that into what we’ve done right all year and build off that going into it.”

Have an interesting story? Contact Neel Madhavan by email at nmadhavan@tribtoday.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @NeelMadhavan.