CURBSTONE COACHES YSU baseball seeks players with character

Assistant coach Dan Stricko pinch-hit for Mike Florak.
By GEORGE WELKER
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
BOARDMAN -- On Major League Baseball's opening day, members of the Curbstone Coaches heard how coaches are trying to develop a top-notch baseball program at Youngstown State.
Pinch-hitting for Mike Florak, YSU's coach who was the scheduled speaker, Pitching coach Dan Stricko said YSU baseball is on the rise.
"What we're trying to do is bring in great students, great young men with a lot of character and some baseball ability," Stricko said.
"We're more worried about the kids as individuals than we are as baseball players. Baseball for these young men is going to end sometime."
Florak missed the weekly luncheon because of a medical appointment. He suffers from Crohn's Disease, a chronic digestive disorder that causes painful inflammation of the digestive tract.
Two is the goal: Stricko said the goal at YSU is to build its annual recruiting class around two target signees. The goal is to start with the best players from Youngstown and Steubenville (Florak is a Steubenville native).
"If we get those two players, the best from each area, we feel our recruiting class is going to be pretty strong year-in and year-out," Stricko said.
By NCAA rules, YSU is allowed to offer a little more than seven scholarships, which amounts to anywhere from $500 to a couple thousand dollars per player.
"We want to make sure we're bringing in the type of kids that will represent Youngstown State in a first-class manner," Stricko added. "We have that right now. We have an exceptional bunch of kids that love baseball and are great off the field."
What the 9-9-1 Penguins are lacking, Stricko said, is experience. The youthful Penguins start several underclassmen who still are learning how to win.
YSU has lost several close games, including going 4-5-1 on a recent trip through the South. The Penguins lost in the bottom of the seventh to Morehead State, and lost twice to the College of Charleston after leading in the seventh, for example.
"Realistically, we could have won 12 ball games," Stricko told the group. "We've lost many, many baseball games because we just don't know how to win yet. As soon as we can learn that, we'll be a very exciting baseball team to watch."
Young team: YSU doesn't have an infielder who is older than a sophomore, and the leading hitter is a freshman.
"We're extremely, extremely young. And, we're building our program to be one of the best," Stricko said.
Stricko is a 1993 graduate of Austintown Fitch High School who also played four years of baseball at Muskingum College. He has coached at the high school level, and became YSU's top assistant last year when the Penguins' pitching coach took a job at Otterbein College.
"Within a two-day span, I went from being a volunteer coach to being a top assistant," Stricko said.
But he has not become complacent. His goal is to become a head baseball coach at the college level by the time he becomes 30 years old.
"Baseball is what I love, and it's what I know. So, I think I'm in the right profession," Stricko said.