Boone, Caipen key YSU in victory

The Penguins have won three of their last four games in the Horizon League.
By PETE MOLLICA
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
NILES -- Brian Boone has made a full recovery and Brandon Caipen is on a hot streak and the Youngstown State baseball team has won three of its last four games in the Horizon League.
Tuesday afternoon the Penguins used both Boone's arm and Caipen's hot bat to post a 5-1 victory over Cleveland State.
The Penguins (15-21, 7-8 Horizon) got some satisfaction with the victory as the Vikings swept a doubleheader last week at Eastwood Field.
Boone, the senior from Pickerington, threw seven solid innings, allowing just one run and seven hits while striking out five and walking none.
Caipen, the senior from Tallmadge who had five hits on Sunday in Milwaukee, came back with two more against the Vikings and drove in a pair of runs. One of Caipen's hit was a booming double off the left field wall.
"I think its just a case of getting some good pitches to hit, but I do feel great at the plate right now," said Caipen, who went into the game with a .315 batting average.
Boone broke a finger on his pitching hand early in the season and has just started pitching again. In his last 13 innings he has allowed just three runs.
"I feel good out there right now and I'm throwing strikes, plus the hitting and defense has been just great," Boone said.
"I think the doubleheader loss to Cleveland was kind of a wake up call for us and we realized that we can't take anybody for granted," added Caipen.
Good effort
YSU head coach Mike Florak was pleased with the team's effort Tuesday and over the weekend in Milwaukee.
"We had to score a lot of runs this past weekend to win, so it was good to see some solid pitching today and to generate some hits and runs," Florak said. "We got seven great innings out of Brian today. He's really come back from the broken finger and we're going to need him down the stretch.
"Brandon is just having a great senior season, he works so hard all the time and it's good to see that hard work paying off."
The Penguins got on the scoreboard first in the third inning when J.D. Hannan led off with a double down the right field line.
Josh Page then singled home Hannan and Caipen followed with a double off the wall in left-center to score Page.
Cleveland State (6-23, 5-10 Horizon) scored its only run in the fourth as Steve Chinn singled and Michael Babin doubled him home before Boone settled down and got out of the inning with the help of a perfect throw from YSU's right fielder Brent Parks, who cut down Babin at the plate on Marc Sikora's single.
Sikora, a former Boardman High standout, had two hits in the game for the Vikings.
Taking advantage
The Penguins made the score 4-1 with two more runs in the seventh inning without getting a hit.
There were three Cleveland State errors in the inning which accounted for one run and then Caipen's sacrifice fly brought home the second run.
In the eighth inning YSU scored another run without a hit as Lou Gattozzi walked and Sean Lucas pinched run for him. Lucas got to second on a throwing error, moved to third on a fly out and scored on a wild pitch.
Page also had two hits for the Penguins, while Chinn led the Vikings with three singles.
Today the Penguins have a non-league contest against Malone College at 7 p.m. at Cene Park.