COLLEGE BASEBALL Seeded second, Penguins await first Horizon League opponent

Last year, YSU won the tournament after being seeded last.
By PETE MOLLICA
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
The Youngstown State University baseball team will open defense of its Horizon League Tournament championship when this year's playoffs continue Thursday in Indianapolis.
The Penguins (28-25, 10-6 Horizon) finished second in the league's regular season to earn the second seed and a first-round bye. The tournament begins today with two games at Victory Field.
Thursday at 4 p.m., YSU will meet the highest seed winner of today's action for a second-round matchup.
Today, fourth-seeded Wright State (24-31, 11-9) meets fifth-seeded Cleveland State (13-34, 5-15) in the tournament opener at noon.
In the second game at 4 p.m., No. 3 seed UW-Milwaukee (22-29, 12-8) plays No. 6 seed Butler (19-33, 4-12).
Thursday at 8 p.m., Illinois-Chicago (35-18-1, 14-6), the tournament's No. 1 seed, will play the lower seed winner of today's action.
Home-field advantage
YSU, which hosted the 2004 tournament at Eastwood Field, was the No. 8 seed in last year's event and went undefeated in the tournament to capture its first Horizon League crown and earn its first trip to the NCAA Division I tournament.
This season, the Penguins have had an up-and-down year, starting the season with a 1-10 record, then winning 23 of their next 28 games, before hitting a late-season slump which saw them lose nine of 10 games.
The Penguins rebounded in their final series of the season, taking three out of four games from UW-Milwaukee at Eastwood Field to lock up the No. 2 seed and the first-round bye.
Head coach Mike Florak (163-205-1) is in his sixth season as the Penguins coach.
The Penguins enter the tournament batting .304 as a team, third best in the Conference behind Illinois-Chicago (.309) and Wright State (.305).
YSU is trying to become only the second Horizon League team to win back-to-back tournament championships since 1995. The other team to do it was UW-Milwaukee in 2001 and 2002.
Phillips leads in batting
The Penguins also have three of the league's top six hitters, led by senior Jim Phillips (.370), who is third behind Butler's Alex Rinearson (.388) and teammate Dale Mueller (.371).
Junior Justin Banks is the league's No. 4 hitter with a .363 average, while junior J.D. Hannan is sixth with a .356 mark in league play.
The Penguins have three other players hitting above .300 on the season, including redshirt freshman Erich Diedrich (.333), junior Brandon Caipen (.315) and junior Dustin Thomas (.308).
Phillips is the only senior on this year's Penguins roster.
The Penguins also have outstanding pitching this year, led by junior Justin Thomas, who is 7-5 with a 3.42 earned run average -- second in the conference standings.
Sophomore Andy Svitak carries a perfect 5-0 record, while junior Eric Shaffer is 4-7.
Junior Kevin Libeg of Hubbard (3-3) and Josh Wells (1-1) are the team's top relief pitchers.
The tournament will continue through Sunday if necessary, but could end Saturday.
If the Penguins win on Thursday they most likely would meet No. 1 seed UIC on Friday at 7 p.m. in the winners' bracket final.