YSU BASEBALL Poor pitching costs Penguins

UW-Milwaukee ended YSU's Horizon League title hopes with a 12-10 victory in the elimination game.
INDIANAPOLIS --A year after having everything fall their way in the Horizon League Championship, the Youngstown State baseball team found out just how hard it is to duplicate that feat.
After two games of solid pitching, the Penguins offense finally came to life, but the pitching could not hold up as the second-seeded Penguins suffered a 12-10 defeat to third-seeded UW-Milwaukee in Saturday's elimination game at Victory Field.
UWM advances to the title game against top-seed UIC, which was played later Saturday. The Panthers need two wins to take the crown.
Youngstown State ends its season with a 29-27 overall mark.
Different story
Last year, YSU coach Mike Florak watched his team catch some breaks to earn the school's first postseason conference tournament crown in school history. This year, he watched as the Penguins suffered some untimely breaks.
"We pitched our tails off the first two games so I can't really say it was this or that," Florak said. "We didn't really hit in those games.
"Today we hit, we just didn't pitch," Florak said. "Winning championships is a tough thing."
For the first four innings, the Penguins looked to be in 2004 championship form. Starting pitcher Andy Svitak worked out of jams in the first three innings.
In the bottom of the third, the Penguins offense came to life. Centerfield J.D. Hannan opened the inning with a single and with one out moved to second on a walk by catcher Erich Diedrich.
Hannan moved up to third on a failed pickoff by UWM starter Mike Rauwerdink (2-5).
Justin Banks followed with a two-RBI double off the wall in right and the big inning was on. Banks moved to third on a wild pitch and after Jim Phillips struck out, scored on Dustin Thomas' double. Another wild pitch moved Thomas to third and he scored on a double by Charles Schultz.
Mike Turjanica knocked in the fifth run of the inning when he singled in Schultz.
Collapse
But a collapse came quickly in the fifth after Svitak (5-1) retired the side in the fourth.
Mike Goetz led off with a single and despite a five-run advantage, Svitak walked Brooks, Graff and Zak Rivera to load the bases.
Joe Nowicki hit a two-RBI double and Nicholas Wischer scored another run on a groundout to short cutting the deficit to two.
Charlie Reschke doubled home Nowicki and then scored on a triple to left center by Jesse Hart that tied the game.
After a strikeout, Svitak gave up a triple to Ross McCoy that scored Hart with the go-ahead run. Josh Wells came on in relief and Goetz greeted him with a double off Brandon Caipen's glove in right scoring McCoy.
By the time the inning was over, UWM had scored seven times on six hits -- five of which were for extra bases.
In the sixth, Wischer ripped a two-run homer off Wells that made the Panthers' advantage 9-5.
YSU answered back in the bottom of the inning when Turjanica hit the first homer of his career, a two-run shot to right, and knocked Rauwerdink out of the ballgame.
But the bullpen surrendered two runs in the seventh and another in the eighth as the Panther lead expanded to 12-7.
From the fifth through seventh innings, every one of the Panthers starters scored at least one run. Overall in the final five innings, UWM had 15 of their 18 hits.
Needed to stay in it
Florak said his bullpen needed to realize the situation and keep the game from getting out of reach.
"Every single pitch is important because you never know when your chance is going to come around," Florak said. "You never know when somebody is going to hit a home run to get you back in the game.
"Baseball is a game like no other," Florak said. "You never know what is going to happen. It's just crazy sometimes. Our guys kept fighting, that's all I can ask."
In the ninth, he asked and almost received a lot.
Win one out, Diedrich drilled a three-run homer off reliever Jed Dolske to cut the deficit to 12-10. After a Banks ground out to third, Phillps walked, bringing the tying run to the plate.
Rob Brockel came on in relief to face Thomas who popped out to third to end the game.
Florak said he wasn't surprised his team made one last comeback attempt in the ninth.
"We never gave up, but it just wasn't meant to be," he said. "We're moving in the right direction and I think we have one of the better programs in the league."