Saturday, April 29, 2006
Youngstown State split a doubleheader with Butler.
By PETE MOLLICA
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
NILES -- It was a case of feast or famine for the Youngstown State baseball team Saturday afternoon in its Horizon League doubleheader against Butler University.
The Penguins pounded out 15 hits to win the opener, 10-4, but the Bulldogs shut down the YSU bats in the nightcap and posted a 5-1 victory.
YSU (18-25, 9-11 Horizon League) needs to get hot over its remaining 10 league contests to get one of the two byes for the league tournament next month.
The Penguins are in fourth place in the standings, but have three-game series coming up with No. 1 Illinois-Chicago and No. 3 UW-Milwaukee, both at Eastwood Field.
"We definitely need to step it up from here on out," said YSU coach Mike Florak. "It's going to be up to our seniors to get us back in the thick of things."
Strong start
The Penguins got eight solid innings out of sophomore pitcher Lucas Engle in the opener and the rest of the team responded with 15 hits, including home runs by sophomore Josh Page and senior Justin Banks.
"Lucas is such a competitor, he really has stepped up his game; now if we can get some of these other guys to do that we'll be OK," added Florak.
Page led off the game hitting the third pitch from Butler starter Bryan Bokowy over the left-field wall which got the Penguins rolling.
"That was the first time I've ever led off a game with a home run," said Page, who hit his first homer of the season.
"We had everything going for us in the first game, but we just couldn't get anything going in the second game. Sometimes that happens in baseball, but I can't tell you why," he said.
The Penguins scored two more runs in the fourth inning with the help of two Butler errors, then broke the game open in the fifth when they batted around and produced six hits and five runs.
Banks led off the inning hitting a shot into the YSU bullpen for his fourth homer of the season and Brent Parks followed with a double. Sophomore John Koehnlein and Dustin Thomas both had RBI singles in the inning.
Banks, Koehnlein and Page all had three hits in the opener.
Nightcap
In the second game Brian Deter was the difference for Butler (16-26, 9-14 Horizon) as he took control of the Penguins' bats.
Deter (4-4) retired the first nine batters he faced, then struggled slightly in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings, before retiring the final nine Penguins in a row.
The Penguins scored their only run in the fifth inning when Parks led off the inning with his second home run of the season to right-center field.
YSU had all seven of its hits off Deter in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings, but he pitched out of trouble, getting help from a double play in the fourth to end the inning.
Parks had two of the seven hits for the Penguins.
Butler's Joe Dempsey had a two-run homer and an RBI single to lead the Bulldogs.
The Penguins and Bulldogs will meet in the third game of the series today at 1 p.m. at Eastwood Field.
All of YSU's remaining home games will be at Eastwood Field.
mollica@vindy.com