Hopes bright for host YSU

By Pete Mollica

The Penguins baseball team will host this week’s Horizon League tournament.

YOUNGSTOWN — Rich Pasquale, Youngstown State’s first-year baseball coach, couldn’t be more excited about his team’s prospects going into this week’s Horizon League tournament.

For one, the Penguins are hosting the tournament at Eastwood Field, beginning Tuesday when No. 7 seed Butler meets No. 6 seed Valparaiso in the tournament’s play-in game at 3 p.m.

The Penguins earned the third seed in the tournament after winning two of three games at Milwaukee over the weekend. The Penguins finished the regular season with a 23-31 record, including 13-12 in the league.

The Penguins won six more regular -season games and four more Horizon League games than a year ago when they finished last in the conference standings.

Youngstown State has won four of its last five games, including a doubleheader sweep in Milwaukee Thursday night. The Penguins won the nightcap, 5-4, in 13 innings, in Miller Park, the home of the Milwaukee Brewers.

“I think that second game was the case of our kids just wanting to stay in Miller Park a little longer,” Pasquale said.

The Penguins will open tournament play Wednesday against the winner of Tuesday’s opening game at 3 p.m.

The tournament championship game is scheduled for Saturday, but if the loser’s bracket finalist wins that game there will be another game Sunday to decide the outcome.

Illinois-Chicago is the defending tournament champion and the No. 1 seed this year, while Wright State, earned the No. 2 seed. Both received byes into the tournament’s second round.

Only seven Horizon League schools have baseball teams. Detroit and Wisconsin-Green Bay do not sponsor the sport.

Pasquale said he feels his team is playing its best baseball right now.

“I’m very pleased the way we are playing hard for all nine innings,” he said. “We’re taking care of our at-bats and getting quality at-bats and I like the way the guys are staying in the game mentally.”

Pasquale knows pitching will be the key to the Penguins’ success in the tournament.

“We’ve been getting some good pitching and we’ve found out a few things in the last week and a half,” he continued. “Guys who have had some rough starts early in the year are starting to come around now when we really need them.

“Aaron Swenson is our No. 1 guy right now and he’ll pitch the opener on Wednesday,” Pasquale said.

Swenson, a sophomore, is 6-3 this season, including 6-1 against the league. He got a no-decision in Thursday’s opening win over Milwaukee despite pitching into the seventh inning. He has five complete games this year.

Pasquale will choose between seniors Chuck Schiffhauer and Adam Kalafos and sophomore Corey Vukovic for the second game start.

He’s also excited about the work recently from seniors Ryan Sellman and Lucas Engle, junior Craig Gillet and freshman Matt Tucker.

“Now we have some options coming into the tournament,” he said.

Pasquale feels that playing at Eastwood Field will be an advantage for the Penguins.

“It’s a big advantage just to be in familiar surroundings, knowing the outfield and the infield, and hopefully we will have a big crowd on hand for some support,” Pasquale said.

“But right now I think the big asset for our team has been our ability to finish games, something that we weren’t able to do earlier in the year,” he said.

The Penguins pitchers have plenty of offensive support.

They finished the season with six players batting over .300, led by redshirt freshman outfielder Joe Iacobucci with a .379 average and 33 RBIs.

Senior catcher-first baseman Erich Diedrich is hitting .340 and sophomore catcher-designated hitter Anthony Porter is at .328.

The others are senior Josh Page (.312), senior Sean Lucas (.309) and sophomore Eric Marzec (.309).

Lucas also has 33 RBIs while Marzec has a team-best five home runs.

mollica@vindy.com