Penguins baseball struggles

There appears to be some major problems with the Youngstown State baseball team this season.
The biggest problem seems to be the fact that nobody knows what the real problem is.
Now if you're confused, join the club.
The Penguins went into the 2007 season with a very young team and that prompted the league's coaches to pick them to finish in next to last place in the Horizon League's pre-season poll.
Unfortunately the Penguins haven't even lived up to their pre-season billing as with this past weekend's 2-1 series loss to Butler they dropped into the conference cellar with a 13-26 overall record and 6-13 in the league.
Florak had highhopes for team
YSU coach Mike Florak will be the first one to admit he had high hopes for this year's squad. He expected them to have trouble early in the year with all the young players on the team, but he felt they group would develop into a strong team and battle for the league title.
It hasn't happened and time is running out.
The Penguins have talent, but haven't showed a lot of it lately.
Sophomore John Koehnlein is one of the best hitters in the conference and has been playing like that, while juniors Josh Page and Erich Diedrich are also have good seasons at the plate, but after that nobody has really been a consistent threat with the bats.
The Penguins are still second in the conference in team batting, hitting just under .280 for the year.
The team has struggled defensively, committing 81 errors and are last in the conference in team fielding, but Florak has had to move so many players around in the lineup that many times some of the younger players are forced into roles they can't yet handle.
In Saturday's second game of the doubleheader with Butler, one the Penguins lost in 11 innings, Koehnlein played three different positions: Right field, third base and left field.
The fact that the Penguins lost senior infielder Lou Gattozzi with an injury hasn't helped the defense.
Pitching has beenmajor problem
But probably the biggest problem with the Penguins has been pitching, or rather the lack of it.
Juniors Lucas Engle and Adam Kalafos have given the Penguins some strong outings this year, while senior reliever Andy Svitak has a team-high seven saves, but things go downhill quickly after that.
The Penguins have the league's highest ERA at 6.27 and they lead the league in wild pitches (31) and hit batsmen (52).
Of the 14 pitchers listed on the Penguins roster, seven of them are freshmen. Those seven have a combined record of 5-5.
The players know that things aren't right.
"We were young early in the season, but after 30 some games you can't use that as an excuse any more," Koehnlein said.
"We know we're better than we are playing," he said. "We work hard in practice every day, but things just don't seem to go right in the games. Everybody is trying, but it's not getting done."
Even Florak took the "speechless" stance following Saturday's doubleheader. He spent some 15 minutes after the game addressing the team in left field.
Marathon twinbilllast Saturday
Saturday's doubleheader was a marathon, taking 81/2 hours to complete.
One of the delays occurred in between the top and bottom of the first inning.
Home plate umpire Greg Patoray was viewing the pitches of Butler starter Brian Deter before the start of the inning. Deter fired a high pitch that struck Patoray right in the mask and it dazed the veteran umpire.
He had to leave the game and Dave Smith finished the game behind the plate. Two innings later Smith was hit in the arm by a bat, but remained in the contest.
Then there was the fact that Florak used 14 position players and five different pitchers, while the Bulldogs had 12 position players in the game.
The Penguins are home to Kent State Tuesday at 3 p.m. at Eastwood Field.
Pete Mollica covers YSU athletics for The Vindicator. Write to him at mollica@vindy.com.