YSU drops contest against Kent, 5-3

The Penguins battled the No. 24-ranked Flashes right to the end.

By PETE MOLLICA

Vindicator sports staff

KENT — All season long on the road, the Youngstown State baseball team has been just one pitch or one hit away from being a very successful team.

Tuesday afternoon, the Penguins (9-22) ran into much of the same problems in their 5-3 loss to No. 24 ranked Kent State University at Schoonover Stadium.

The Penguins were one pitch away from getting out of the second inning unscathed, but didn’t get it and allowed two runs, while they had scoring opportunities of their own in the second and fifth inning, but couldn’t come up with the much-needed hit to get a run across.

“It’s been like this all season long on the road,” said YSU coach Rich Pasquale. “We’ve played much, much better than our record indicates.”

The Flashes (25-7) improved to 13-1 at home this season as they are off to the best start in school history, but they had to battle to get past the Penguins.

“I thought we had some great pitching and we played tremendous defense and I’ve very proud of the way we played against a very good team like Kent,” Pasquale said.

The Penguins outhit the Flashes 8-7 and junior catcher Anthony Porter led the way with three hits, including a pair of doubles. He scored a run and drove home another.

YSU’s starting pitcher, freshman Ryan Messmer, was coasting along in the first two innings when he felt something pop in his pitching arm.

He walked three batters with two outs and when he finally came out in favor of reliever Trent Wood, the bases were loaded and Wood allowed a hit up the middle that just glanced off shortstop Jacke Healey’s glove for a single that scored two runs.

“We don’t know what it was or where on his arm it popped, but we didn’t want to take any chances and he was pitching well for someone that hadn’t thrown in two weeks,” said Pasquale.

The Penguins bounced back to tie the score in the fourth and they did it with two outs.

Freshman Jeremy Banks led off with a single up the middle and then stole second base. Junior Eric Hymel then singled through the left side scoring Banks and Porter followed with a double into left-center, scoring Hymel.

But Wood couldn’t hold down the Flashes who added two more runs in the fifth when he walked the leadoff batter, allowed an RBI double to Ben Klafczynski and an RBI single to Travis Shaw before junior Anthony Munoz came on to put out the fire.

The Penguins started a rally in the seventh when Porter led off with a double and sophomore David Leon singled him home, but after Jacke Healey sacrificed Leon to second, the Flashes called on Justin Gill to get the final two outs and end the rally.

Kent State tacked on a run in the eighth when junior relief pitcher Eric Marzec came in for Munoz after a one-out single by Jason Patton. Marzec balked Patton to second, threw a wild pitch putting him on third and then gave up a sacrifice fly to score Patton.

The Penguins will return home today for a 3 p.m. non-conference contest with Duquesne that will be played at Cene Park. They will also host Milwaukee in a three-game Horizon League series beginning Friday at 3 p.m. at Eastwood Field.

mollica@vindy.com