College baseball: YSU rolls in home opener

By Pete Mollica

Penguins rout IUP 12-4 at Cene Park

“I really felt good out there today. It was cold and the wind was really tough, but when you get the offensive support that I got today it really gives you a lot of confidence.”

Adam Kalafos

YSU pitcher

Joe Iacobucci and Josh Page had four hits, and Adam Kalafos picked up the win.

STRUTHERS — With 12 runs, 18 hits and an eight-inning performance from his starting pitcher, first year Youngstown State baseballcoach Rich Pasquale hopes all the Penguins’ games go as smoothly as the home opener Tuesday.

The Penguins started quickly in a 12-4 victory over Indiana (Pa.) at Cene Park.

YSU (5-11) has won four of its last seven games overall and doing it without the team’s best hitters from last season.

Junior John Koehnlein and senior Eric Diedrich have both been injured most of the early season. Koehnlein, who hit over .400 last year while making the All-Horizon League team, has played just four games, while Diedrich, the team’s best power hitter, has yet to play.

“Koehnlein came back in the Butler series last weekend and then fell over first base and re-injured his wrist, while Diedrich is getting close and is day-to-day,” said Pasquale. “We really need both of them and quickly.”

Tuesday, the Penguins had 18 hits, including four each by senior Josh Page and redshirt freshman Joe Iacobucci (who also drove in four runs), while sophomore Anthony Munoz had two hits, including his first career home run, and drove in four runs. Page and Iacobucci each had a pair of doubles.

“It was good to see the offense coming around,” Pasquale said. “Our pitching has been pretty good this spring and we got another great game from Adam Kalafos.”

Kalafos pitched eight innings, scattering eight hits while striking out 11 and not issuing a walk. Senior Ryan Sellman pitched the final inning, allowing one hit and striking out one.

“I really felt good out there today,” Kalafos said. “It was cold and the wind was really tough, but when you get the offensive support that I got today it really gives you a lot of confidence.”

The Penguins went right after IUP starter Jake Rougeaux, who gave up 15 hits and suffered the loss. Senior Sean Lucas opened the game with a single, Page followed with a double, and Iacobucci singled both runners home for a 2-0 lead.

YSU added a single run in the third when Munoz scored on Page’s sacrifice fly, but the Crimson Hawks (16-5) tied the score when Kalafos had his only shaky inning in the fourth.

IUP had three singles and a triple by Paul Bingham to tie the contest, but Kalafos settled down and didn’t give up another run until the eighth.

YSU blew the game open in the fifth and sixth innings, scoring twice in the fifth on back-to-back doubles by Page and Iacobucci and an RBI single by Anthony Porter.

They added four more in the sixth, two of them on Munoz’s home run to left field, another on Iacobucci’s RBI single and the final one on a balk.

Munoz drove home two more runs with a single in the seventh and the final run came in the eighth on Dustin Wachter’s RBI single.

The Penguins will play at Akron today at 3 p.m., then go to Western Kentucky for a three-game seriesSaturday and Sunday. After that they will play 15 of their next 16 games at home beginning April 1 against Bowling Green at Eastwood Field.

mollica@vindy.com