Sleeping bats doom Penguins

By Pete Mollica

YSU managed five hits and blew a two-run lead, falling to Valparaiso 3-2 in the Horizon League tournament.

NILES — If the Youngstown State baseball team is going to pull off a repeat of the 2004 championship team, which last hosted the Horizon League tournament, it will have to do it from the losers bracket.

Wednesday the No. 3-seeded Penguins blew a two-run lead and dropped a 3-2 decision to No. 6 seed Valparaiso at Eastwood Field.

The Penguins (23-32) will play No. 4 seed Cleveland State today at 11 a.m. at Eastwood Field. The Vikings (21-30) lost to No. 5 seed Wisconsin-Milwaukee 10-7 earlier Wednesday.

YSU scored runs in the first and third innings, the latter unearned, and coasted through five innings by starting pitcher Aaron Swenson.

But in the sixth Swenson gave up a lead-off home run to Josh Wallace. He left with two outs in the seventh.

Ryan Wackerman and Ryan Sellman came on to face just one batter each, then Craig Gillet came on and gave up the tying run in the eighth and allowed four hits in the ninth as the Crusaders scored the go-ahead run.

But the problem wasn’t pitching, it was hitting — or the lack of it. The Penguins managed just five hits, all of them off Valparaiso starter Jon Gulbransen. They were no-hit over the final four innings by relievers Jay Clites, Austen Siwiec and Jarad Miller.

“You have to give credit to where it’s due and Valparaiso hit the ball very well and they got great pitching,” said YSU coach Rich Pasquale.

“Gulbransen gave us trouble up in Valparaiso early this year and he pitched another great game today,” Pasquale said. “Their closer, Miller, is one of the best in the league and he showed it in the ninth inning.

“We just didn’t hit the ball very well today,” he added. “I can’t honestly remember the last time we only had five hits in a game.”

The Penguins jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first when Sean Lucas singled with one out and went to third when Erich Diedrich singled in the hole at shortstop. Joe Iacobucci was hit by a pitch to load the bases and Anthony Porter hit a sacrifice fly, scoring Lucas.

In the third Diedrich was hit by a pitch with one out. After Iacobucci popped out, Porter reached on an error and Eric Marzec walked to load the bases. With David Leon batting, Valparaiso catcher Matt Lenski mishandled a pitch and tried to get Diedrich at third, but threw the ball into left field and Diedrich went home.

“We’ve been behind a lot this year and we’ve come back most of the time,” said Valparaiso coach Tracy Woodson. “We didn’t always win those games but we were right in them until the end.”

Swenson coasted through the first three innings, retiring the Crusaders in order. In the fourth he allowed back-to-back singles to open the inning, although he picked off Dan DeBruin to get one out. He then walked the bases loaded before getting out of the jam.

In the fifth he again had the bases loaded before getting out of trouble.

Swenson had two outs with a runner on second in the seventh when Pasquale went to Wackerman, a left-hander, who retired the final batter. He then brought in Sellman to pitch to the first batter in the eighth and he struck him out before going to Gillet, who then gave up a single and RBI double to Andrew Quinnette to tie the game.

In the ninth John Giusti led off with a single before he was forced out at second. Brett Bivens and Zach Rodeghero followed with singles, but Bivens was caught in a rundown and tagged out.

But Wallace singled to right to drive in the go-ahead run.

mollica@vindy.com