Kerplunk, then sunk: Penguins fall to Valpo

By Pete Mollica | April 5, 2008 at 12:00a.m.

Youngstown State couldn’t rally in the bottom of the 11th inning and fell 4-3.

NILES — Just two days after Youngstown State’s baseball team combined to set a new NCAA record for hit batsmen in a game the Penguins hit only one Friday night.

However that one came in the top of the 11th inning with the bases loaded and enabled Valparaiso to pull out a 4-3 Horizon League victory over the Penguins at Eastwood Field.

Senior Joe Antinone, who came on in relief of starting pitcher Chuck Schiffhauer in the eighth inning, pitched his way out of a couple of jams before faltering in the 11th and was tagged with the loss.

Valparaiso (8-18, 3-3 Horizon) loaded the bases with two outs on Antinone, who then hit Matt Lenski forcing in the winning run.

Schiffhauer, a senior, pitched strong seven innings before being relieved in the eighth by Antinone. Schiffhauer allowed six hits, but only four through seven innings, struck out four and allowed just one earned run.

The Penguins (7-17, 1-3) came back in the bottom of the 11th and threaten to pull it out as they loaded the bases with only one out, but couldn’t come up with a hit when they needed one.

The Crusaders scored first in the fourth inning when Zach Rodeghero doubled down the left field line and scored on a single by Andrew Quinnette.

The Penguins tied it in the bottom of the fourth when senior Erich Diedrich led off with a double down the left field line and after Sean Lucas sacrificed him to third, Diedrich scored on Eric Marzec’s ground out.

Valparaiso added another run in the sixth with the help of a YSU error.

Rodeghero led off with a ground ball to David Leon at short, but the freshman threw wildly to first and Rodeghero ended up on second base and scored when Josh Wallace singled him home.

The Penguins’ second error of the game gave the Crusaders their third run in the eighth. Again it was Rodeghero in the middle as he hit a double play ball to Leon who got the out at second, but Josh Page’s throw to first was wild and Rodeghero was on second again. He scored on a single by Quinnette.

The Penguins finally came to life in the bottom of the eighth. With one out Sean Lucas walked and on a hit-and-run play Anthony Porter singled in the hole at short with Lucas getting all the way to third. Marzec then singled to center scoring Lucas and Dustin Wachter followed with another single in the hole to score Porter and tie the contest.

Junior John Koehnlein doubled his hit total for the year with four singles to lead the Penguins’ 11 hit attack, but three of his hits were infield singles. Marzec had two hits including a double and drove in two of the Penguins’ three runs.

The two teams will play a doubleheader today at Eastwood Field beginning at 1 p.m.

mollica@vindy.com