Penguins sweep Valparaiso

By Pete Mollica

The pitching of Cory Vukovic and Aaron Swenson led the Penguins to victory.

NILES — Two outstanding pitching performances by a couple of sophomores led the Youngstown State baseball team to a doubleheader sweep of Valparaiso Saturday at Eastwood Field.

Sophomore Cory Vukovic, a McDonald native, scattered six hits over seven innings as the Penguins shut out the Crusaders 6-0 in the opener.

Sophomore Aaron Swenson tossed a complete game seven-hitter as YSU completed the Horizon League sweep with a 3-1 victory.

“I can’t say enough about the outstanding pitching we got in both games today, especially after coming off a very disappointing loss on Friday night,” YSU head coach Rich Pasquale said.

The Penguins (9-17, 3-3 Horizon) cracked 19 hits over the two games and played solid defense against the Crusaders (8-20, 3-5).

Vukovic (1-1) was masterful over the first seven innings of the opener. In addition to allowing just six hits, he had a career-high seven strikeouts and did not walk a batter.

Senior Adam Kalafos came on to pitch the final two innings and kept the shutout intact.

The shutout was the first for the Penguins since May 2005.

“It was a good team effort,” Vukovic said. “Warming up today, everything just felt great and it just carried over to the game. It was also nice to be playing in some good weather for a change.

“We needed a win, especially after Friday’s tough loss,” Vukovic said. “We can’t get down on ourselves and we needed to bounce back like we did.”

In the second game, Swenson (2-2), who threw his second complete game of the season, was just as good.

He allowed the Crusaders a run in the second inning, but blanked them the rest of the way while striking out 10. He walked none but hit one batter.

When asked if this win was better then the one he had at Butler, Swenson said, “I think we needed this one more, we needed to sweep today to get back into the league race.

“It was fun pitching out there today, especially with the support that I had from my defense,” Swenson said. “They really played well behind me.”

Senior Erich Diedrich, who has missed most of the season with injuries, is back to his old form as he drilled three hits and drove in two runs in the opener.

The two RBIs helped him set a new YSU career record with 140, breaking the old mark set by Jim Lipinski in 2001-04.

“It’s good to be back out here healthy and playing the position I love to play,” said Diedrich who started his first game at catcher in two years. “I’m really at home back there.”

“And catching Cory was a real treat, he pitched so well today. It made my job a lot easier,” Diedrich said.

In the fifth inning, the Penguins broke it open with a four-run rally, Sean Lucas, Diedrich, Anthony Porter and Eric Marzec all had RBI’s. Lucas tripled in the inning and Marzec had a double.

In the nightcap, the Penguins tied the score in the third on an RBI single by Lucas and took the lead in the fifth with the help of two Crusader errors. YSU added an insurance run in the eighth when junior John Koehnlein singled, stole second and went to third when the throw went into center field. He scored on Lucas’ single to left.

“We’ve been doing a lot of things on the bases right now, running, stealing, hit and run and it’s enabled us to keep the pressure on the opposition,” Pasquale said.

The Penguins will play a doubleheader at Toledo on Tuesday and then return home on Wednesday to play Akron in a 3 p.m. contest at Eastwood Field.

mollica@vindy.com