Hard-fought, but futile 2-1 loss to Butler

Brent Parks had two hits for the Penguins, including a ninth-inning home run.
By PETE MOLLICA
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
NILES -- It was another frustrating night for the Youngstown State baseball team at Eastwood Field.
The Penguins (12-25, 5-12 Horizon League) finally got some pitching, but couldn't produce the runs in a 2-1 conference loss to Butler (15-25, 7-14).
Bulldogs' starting pitcher Jon Dages threw eight shutout innings to pick up his fourth win of the season.
"Give them credit, the kid pitched a whale of a game against us," said YSU coach Mike Florak.
Dages and YSU starter, junior Lucas Engle, had a pitching duel through eight innings.
In control
Engle (3-5) allowed the Bulldogs single runs in the third and eighth inning, but was in control most of the way. Ryan Wackerman and Joe Antinone came on to pitch the ninth inning and after loading the bases got out of the jam.
"It just wasn't good enough," said Lucas. "We played better than we did last weekend, but it still wasn't good enough.
"It's been like this all season," he added. "One game we get good pitching and no runs and the next we score the runs, but we don't get the pitching."
Florak felt the team is coming around.
"It was a good, hard-fought Horizon League game," Florak said. "We just have to continue to get better and come out [today] and play better and just keep it going."
"I thought Luke [Engle] pitched his heart out tonight, we just couldn't get him any runs," Florak added.
The Penguins were shut out until the ninth inning when senior center fielder Brent Parks led off the inning with a blast over the right-field fence, but it wasn't enough to ignite the Penguins as Butler reliever Brian Deter retired the next three Penguins to end the contest.
Gets support
Engle had some defensive help early as the Penguins had inning-ending double plays in the first and second innings.
In Butler's third, Jason Jamerson led off with a single to right and was sacrificed to second. Rick Betsch then drilled a single into right-center to score Jamerson.
Engle then breezed through the next four innings, retiring 11 straight at one point, but ran into trouble in the eighth.
Jamerson again singled to open the inning for the Bulldogs and Engle wild-pitched him to second. After a sacrifice moved Jamerson to third, Betsch hit a sacrifice fly to right to score the run.
Both teams finished with seven hits. Parks had two for the Penguins.
The Penguins had scoring opportunities in the fifth and seventh innings.
In the fifth Rayce Robinson had a lead-off single and with one out Sean Lucas singled to right center with Robinson moving to third, but John Koehnlein, who kept his 10-game hitting streak alive in the third, hit a sharp one-hopper to second that turned into an inning-ending double play.
Clayton stranded
In the seventh Tom Clayton opened with a single to left and was sacrificed to second by Eric Marzec. With two outs Clayton took third on a wild pitch, but Dages got Mike Turjanica to line out to center field.
Parks' blast to lead off the ninth inning was his third home run of the season.
The two teams will meet again today in a doubleheader set to begin at 1 p.m. at Eastwood Field.
mollica@vindy.com