Baseball Penguins can build
The season ended a little too abruptly for the Youngstown State baseball team last week, but the Penguins and their first-year head coach Rich Pasquale still have plenty to be excited about, especially for next season.
“It was disappointing to drop two straight in the tournament especially when we were the host team, but I felt more disappointed for my seniors than for anything else,” Pasquale said.
“Those nine guys carried me through my first year here and I’m so thankful that I had the opportunity to work with them and I’m going to miss them all very much,” he added.
Pasquale is definitely going to miss those seniors, especially second baseman Josh Page, third baseman Sean Lucas and catcher Erich Diedrich from the starting lineup along with pitchers Chuck Schiffhauer, Adam Kalafos, Ryan Sellman, Lucas Engle and Joe Antinone.
But the cupboard is definitely not left bare for Pasquale and his staff of Craig Antush and Ray Antonelli.
Plenty of experience will return in 2009
Returning next season will be 10 position players that have started at one time or another this season, two starting pitchers and four relievers. All played a big role in getting the Penguins to the No. 3 seed in the Horizon League tournament.
Leading the returning players is redshirt freshman outfielder Joe Iacobucci of Boardman who led the team in batting with a .369 average, was second team All-Horizon League and was named to the league’s Newcomer of the Year team.
Sophomore pitcher Aaron Swenson led the Penguins with a 6-3 record, 6-1 against the league. He had five complete games while being name the Horizon League’s Co-Pitcher of the year as well as a first team All-League selection.
The Penguins have two other plus-.300 hitters returning next year — sophomore catcher Anthony Porter of Boardman (.323) and sophomore outfielder Eric Marzec (.304).
Junior outfielder John Koehnlein, who last year batted above .400 and was an all-league selection, fell off this season due to early season injuries and hit .288,. He was just getting his swing back the final weeks of the season.
Sophomore infielder C.J. Morris hit .282 and shortstop David Leon batted .263.
Another promising pitcher, who started the season strong, but struggled at the end, was sophomore Corey Vukovic of McDonald.
“It’s exciting to see what we’ve got coming back next season,” Pasquale said.
Youngstown State won six more
The Penguins finished the season 23-33, an improvement of six more wins over last year and they were 13-12 in the Horizon League, an improvement of four more wins from a year ago.
Still when you open the season with 15 straight games on the road and have to do most of your preseason practicing in the gym, the wins and never going to catch up to the losses.
Beginning with April 1, the Penguins played much better than they did during the first month of the season. They were 4-11 following their opening road experience and played eight of those games against teams such as Georgia Tech, Alabama and Cincinnati.
From April 1 until the end of the regular season, the Penguins were 18-16, including a 13-8 record at home, 4-0 at Cene Park and 8-8 at Eastwood Field.
Pasquale also is very excited about his recruiting class for next season. He’s already signed eight players and still has room for three more.
Two of his recruits are local players and both from Austintown Fitch High. Alex Oles, a pitcher, is already enrolled at YSU after transferring from the University of Pittsburgh where he played one season. He’ll have two years remaining.
The other Falcon is Jim Kinnick, who is finishing up his senior season with Fitch.
Pete Mollica covers YSU athletics from The Vindicator. Write to him at mollica@vindy.com.