Cleveland - Forest Mountain High School graduate Mackenzie Hoover and her Robert Morris softball teammates won the Horizon League Championship Saturday by defeating Purdue University Fort Wayne 4-2.

Freshman Mary Brant exploded a two-home run at the bottom of the eighth inning. It was the first Horizon League champion in the colony and the first NCAA Championship since 2005. This is Robert Morris' fifth season in the Horizon League after leaving the Northeast Conference.

Junior outfielder Hoover has participated in 11 games this season and scored 6-1 in a double set.

Robert Morris has a 30-16 overall game total this season, finishing 16-7 in the Horizon League regular season.

Courtney Poulich, the most valuable player in the tournament, hit her third home run in the game. There were two situations at the first bottom, and she pushed her 15th home run of the season into the right center field.

Next was a tense pitcher showdown between Robert Morris's Madison Devault and Purdue Fort Wayne's Alanah Jones, both teams were unable to score from the second to the sixth inning.

Purdue Fort Wayne finally broke the final chance to be seventh. Grace Hollopeter played the singles gap on the right, scoring twice and leading the mast 2-1. However, the colonists quickly limited the damage, second only to Hollopeter to maintain a single game.

At the bottom of the seventh inning, Robert Morris Redshirt Freshman Sequoia Dunlap smashed a lone home run on the left field wall with 2 hits with the biggest hit in her young career.

Poulich took the lead in the situation after keeping Purdue Fort Wayne from the top of the eighth place. Brant put two home runs in the midfield.

Brant led the colonists with two hits, and Courtney Poulich scored two team-high runs.

Throughout the game, Devault was the main force of the colonists, winning all three innings. She recorded an impressive 17 strikeouts in 21 innings, allowing only 6 runs to earn a great 2.00 ERA.

Brandt has 11 home runs this season and hit .367 with 38 RBIs.

Poulich has now scored five home runs and 10 RBIs in her seven professional playoff games.

Her solo shots in the championship game broke the program's single-season RBI record as she has 52 times this year. She has a single season record of 15 home runs.

Devault, Brant and Alaina Koutsogiani join Poulich.

Robert Morris became the first team since Oakland in 2022 unbeaten in the Horizon League playoffs, ending the game with a perfect 3-0 record. Its main run included two wins in the extra situation and a Mercy win over Purdue Fort Wayne in the semifinals, the first plan to win a Mercy-Rule victory in the Horizon League Championship since 2017.

The colonists also won six NEC Championships in 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1998 and 2005.