YSU baseball splits with Cleveland St.

The Penguins won the opener, 6-5, but lost the nightcap to the Vikings, 6-3.

By PETE MOLLICA

vindicator sports staff

NILES — After playing 23 of his team’s first 24 games on the road this season, Youngstown State baseball coach Rich Pasquale could hardly wait for a meaningful last-of-the-ninth inning at bat.

Saturday in the opening game of a Horizon League doubleheader with Cleveland State at Eastwood Field, Pasquale got a chance to see his Penguins in walk-off mode.

Trailing 5-4 entering the bottom of the ninth inning, the Penguins rallied for two runs, both coming with two outs. Freshman Jeremy Banks came up with a bloop single with the bases loaded to drive in the winning run in a 6-5 victory.

In the nightcap, the Penguins (8-21, 5-6 Horizon) suffered a 6-3 loss to the Vikings (10-18, 3-5).

“I’ve been waiting so long for that opportunity to have the last bats in the ninth inning with a chance to pull out the win and they certainly didn’t let me down today,” Pasquale said.

“You play all those games on the road to begin the year and never really have that opportunity to pull out a victory with a rally like we had today,” Pasquale said. “I was very pleased.”

Pasquale also was happy to see his ace pitcher, junior Aaron Swenson, pick up another victory with another complete game effort.

Swenson probably wasn’t at his best allowing 10 hits, but he gave up just three earned runs and struck out a career-high 11 batters in improving to 3-3 on the year, 3-1 in the conference.

“Aaron just got stronger as the game went on today,” Pasquale said. “He probably didn’t have his best stuff, but he went out there and got the job done.”

The Vikings never seriously got to Swenson, but they just dinged him for single runs three times.

Twice, the Penguins made costly errors and once Swenson fell asleep, failing to cover third base on a sacrifice bunt.

Trailing 5-4 going to the ninth. David Leon popped out to open the inning. Jacke Healey walked and John Koehnlein grounded into a force play with Healey getting tagged out at second.

Koehnlein then was balked to second by Vikings starting pitcher Josh Hungerman, who pitched 8 2/3 innings.

Eric Marzec then hit a routine ground ball to short that looked like the third out, but it went right through the legs of shortstop Tom Carter and Koehnlein scored the tying run.

Joe Iacobucci and Eric Hymel then hit back-to-back infield singles to load the bases. The Vikings brought in left-hander Jimmy Cowhy to pitch to Banks, who had entered the game in the top of the ninth at first base.

Banks hit the first pitch Cowhy served up and it blooped right over second base for the game winner as Marzec scored from third.

“I was looking first pitch all the way,” Banks said. “Coach Pasquale had just told me to look for the first pitch, so that took the pressure off me. It wasn’t a great hit, but it got the job done.”

Cleveland State received an outstanding pitching effort from Anthony Sambula in the nightcap as the sophomore left-hander limited the Penguins to five hits and one earned run over nine innings. It was his first complete game of the season.

“You just got to tip your hat to Sambula, he pitched a great game against us, kept us off balance most of the game,” Pasquale said.

YSU starter Cody Dearth last only three innings against the Vikings. He only allowed three runs on five hits, but Pasquale said that the coaches could see he wasn’t right.

Cory Vukovic and Anthony Munoz each pitched three innings of relief ball, but the trio was tagged for 13 hits.

Batting leaders for the Penguins included Iacobucci and Hymel with two hits each in the opener, while Healey had two.

The two teams will wind up the series today with a 3 p.m. contest at Eastwood Field.

mollica@vindy.com