Hopes for Horizon sweep fade

By Chuck Housteau

YSU trailed Wright State late in Friday’s rain-delayed contest at Eastwood Field.

NILES — The Youngstown State University baseball team entered a critical three-game series against Wright State with a chance to improve its second-place standing in the Horizon League.

The Penguins (17-26, 9-7) trailed the first-place Raiders (22-17, 11-5) by two games and a sweep could propel YSU to the top of the league standings.

Friday, the two teams waited through a nearly two-hour rain delay in the bottom of the third inning at Eastwood Field before resuming play. At press time, YSU trailed Wright State 7-0 in the bottom of the seventh inning.

After concluding Friday night’s game, the Penguins and Raiders resume their series today at 1 p.m. with a doubleheader.

Youngstown State has been playing much better, finishing April with a 12-11 overall record after a 5-15 start.

The Penguins had also seen their team batting average climb after eclipsing a .323 mark in the month. But against the Raiders. YSU struggled to get the big hit heading into the final two innings.

Youngstown State had opportunities against Wright State starter Alex Kaminsky in several innings but couldn’t push across any runs.

Penguins starter Chuck Schiffhauer pitched well but struggled at times against the hot-hitting Raiders.

Wright State opened the scoring with a two-run second inning.

The Raiders got back-to-back doubles off Schiffhauer by Justin Parker and Jeff Mercer that plated the first run. Mercer later scored on a sacrifice fly by Gerald Ogrinc.

Wright State added a run on three straight singles by Aaron Fields, Jeremy Hamilton and Parker. Parker’s hit scored Fields and the Raiders led 3-0.

After the long rain delay, Wright State tallied another run on a double by Casey McGrew, a sacrifice bunt and a ground out RBI by Hamilton.

Youngstown State ran itself out of a potentially big inning in the bottom of the fifth.

After David Leon led off the inning with a double, YSU coach Rich Pasquale elected to bunt Leon over to third. But Jason Reitenbach’s bunt was too hard and Leon was thrown out at third. Josh Page then doubled but after a short fly ball to right failed to score Reitenbach, Page was picked off second base by Kaminsky.

Youngstown State got singles from Boardman native Joe Iacobucci and Eric Marzec in the sixth inning but failed to score again when Anthony Porter flied out and Canfield graduate C.J. Morris grounded out to end the inning.

The Raiders chased Schiffhauer after tallying three-more runs in the top of the seventh inning.

A leadoff homer by McGrew and back-to-back errors by the Penguins enabled Wright State to open up a 7-0 lead.