Penguins baseball squanders lead

The bullpen allowed eight runs in the final three innings against Milwaukee.
By PETE MOLLICA
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
STRUTHERS -- Youngstown State head baseball coach Mike Florak is still trying to figure out how to spell r-e-l-i-e-f, as in bullpen pitching relief.
The Penguins' bullpen blew a 3-1 lead Sunday for sophomore starter Chuck Schiffhauer and then, following a two-hour rain delay, finished up by dropping a 9-5 decision to UW-Milwaukee in a Horizon League contest at Cene Park.
A victory would have helped the Penguins in the league standings, but the loss left YSU right where it started the weekend: in fourth place.
Drop back to fourth place
After sweeping the Panthers on Saturday, the Penguins (24-27, 14-13 Horizon) had moved into a third place tie with the Panthers (27-22, 15-12), but the loss Sunday dropped them back into fourth place with three league games remaining at Cleveland State next weekend.
"Our bullpen just didn't get it done today," said Florak. "It's a shame because Shiffy [Schiffhauer] just did a great job the first six innings. He's a competitor and he just hung in there like a bulldog."
But in the seventh inning, when Florak went to the bullpen, everything fell apart.
Six relievers
The Penguins used six relievers over the final three innings and none were very effective. They used three in the seventh alone.
Freshman Ryan Wackerman started the seventh, didn't allow a hit, but was charged for two runs, hit a batter and committed an error.
Sophomore Joe Antinone came on and gave up two straight singles and two runs before leaving. Junior Andy Svitak came on and got the Penguins out of the inning but not before he allowed a double and a run.
Svitak started the eighth, but walked the first batter and senior Chris Dennis came in. He gave up just one hit, but it scored a run that was charged to Svitak, but by this time the Penguins were trailing 7-4.
Senior Kevin Libeg started the ninth and allowed a double and two walks to start the inning before sophomore Ryan Sellman came on.
Sellman gave up two straight singles as the Panthers scored twice more before getting out of the inning.
"We still had opportunities that we didn't take advantage of," said Florak. "We had first and third and nobody out in the third and didn't score and had the bases loaded with nobody out in the seventh and scored only once."
Jumped out early
The Penguins jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first as freshman John Koehnlein reached on an error and scored on senior Brandon Caipen's single. Caipen scored on a single by senior Justin Banks.
In the fifth the Penguins added another run on three straight singles by Caipen, sophomore Erich Diedrich and Banks to take a 3-1 lead.
Schiffhauer allowed eight hits over his six innings, but only one run and didn't walk a batter.
The Penguins also added single runs in the seventh and eighth inning, but both times let possible big innings get away from them.
Caipen had his second five-hit game of the season to lead the Penguins and he also drove in two runs and scored twice.
Diedrich, Banks and senior J.D. Hannan all finished with two hits as the Penguins totaled 13 on the day -- two fewer than the Panthers.
Need some help
With three games remaining before the Horizon League Tournament the Penguins would need a sweep and some help from a couple of other teams in the standings in order to get to second place and a first-round tournament bye.
"We'll check things out and see where we stand and go from there," said Florak. "I know this team is not going to give up at any time and we'll be in there battling right to the end."
mollica@vindy.com