ysu baseball | This weekend’s games
Who: YSU (3-9) at Butler (1-10) Where: Indianapolis, Ind. When: Today (single game 3 p.m.); Saturday (doubleheader at 1 p.m.) Coaches: Rich Pasquale is in his first season at Youngstown State. Steve Farley begins his 17th season at Butler and has 416 career wins with the Bulldogs. Outlook: Youngstown State has won two of its last three games, but lost its last encounter at Xavier, 8-2 in Cincinnati. The Penguins’ last two contests were postponed because of weather. The Penguins have already suffered two key injuries, the biggest to 2007 All-Horizon League standout John Koehnlein, who suffered a broken bone in his hand in the team’s third game at Georgia Tech and hasn’t played since. Koehnlein was one of the top hitters in NCAA Division I a year ago, batting over .400. Senior Erich Diedrich, the team’s top power hitter a year ago, also hasn’t played yet this season. Diedrich broke a bone in his hand on the team’s first practice session in February. Both are expected to return to the lineup later this month. The Penguins are led by Anthony Porter, who is batting .344, while Sean Lucas and Joe Iacobucci each are hitting .306. Butler, which opened the season with 10 straight losses before beating Tennessee Tech 3-2 in its last game, are led by freshman Grant Fillpitch who has 12 hits. The Bulldogs, who were just 2-5 against the Penguins a year ago, finished Horizon League play with a 10-20 record. Today’s contest will be the Horizon League opener for both teams.SFlbNext up: The Penguins will play Indiana University of Pennsylvania in their home opener at 3 p.m. Tuesday at Cene Park. They’ll play at Akron on Wednesday at 3 p.m.