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Penguins douse Flames
By Jon Moffett
Niles
Now that was the home opener the Youngstown State baseball team was looking for.
After losing its home-away-from-home opener to Canisius on Wednesday at Cene Park, YSU rebounded with a 20-8 victory over UIC at Eastwood Field. The Penguins will play the remainder of their home games at Eastwood Field.
The Penguins (11-11) accumulated 21 hits and every starter had at least one.
“The guys are believing in what we’re teaching them,” said YSU coach Rich Pasquale. “They’re buying into it, but their also trusting themselves, their hands and their swings. They really believe they can hit off anybody.”
Maybe not everybody, but the Penguins could sure hit off of UIC starter Rafael Garcia.
Garcia (1-3) allowed 12 runs – 11 of which were earned – on 13 hits in just three innings. He struck out one.
The relievers for UIC (6-15) were just as victimized. Four others took the mound for the Flames, and allowed eight runs on eight hits. Two of those hits, both doubles, came off the pitcher’s first toss.
“We just had it today; everybody on the team,” said senior outfielder Tom Clayton. “We came through in big situation, had runners in scoring position, and everyone on the team was able to put the bat on the ball, put it in play and make something happen.”
The Penguins’ starter, senior Aaron Swenson, had a much more productive outing.
Swenson (5-0) allowed 13 hits, but scattered them through eight innings. He also allowed all eight runs, but struck out seven.
“They put up 13 hits off of Swenny, so [UIC] team can hit it too,” Pasquale said.
Pasquale said Swenson saw so much action because the teams will play each other two more times in a doubleheader today. But he added an eight-run lead didn’t hurt.
“We had it to where he had to get that second out [in the eighth inning] and once he got that second out, [assistant] coach [Tom] Lipari pointed at his heart, basically telling him to keep going. And Aaron has a lot of heart.”
Swenson threw 124 pitches, 82 of which were strikes, in the victory. And that was coming off a Horizon League pitcher of the week recognition.
The YSU starters combined to hit .500 for the game (21 of 42) and had 17 RBIs.
Clayton, 3 for 3 with three runs scored and one RBI, said it was a matter of the team playing focused and being patient at the plate.
“We’ve just been putting the ball in play, and we’ve been hard outs,” Clayton said. “We might not always get 20 runs a game, but when we’re up there, we’re hard outs. There are no easy outs on this team. We’re going to put the bat on the ball and make the defense play the game.”
Senior shortstop Jacke Healey continued to impress even his own teammates with a stellar season. Healey went 4 for 6 with a stolen base and a run scored. His four RBIs tied for the lead.
Designated hitter Casey Holland also had four RBIs, going 2 for 5. He also scored two runs.
Anthony Porter scored four runs and Jeremy Banks had three RBIs, including two on his second home run of the season.
Clayton echoed sentiments his teammates gave earlier in the year about playing the best baseball he has seen in some time.
“There’s been a lot of production,” he said. “If you look up and down the lineup, we’ve got a lot of hits, and a lot of things in the offensive categories going for us. It comes down to a lot of practice and preparation.”
And though the Penguins scored 20 runs for the first time in almost two years — the last was May 24, 2007 against Butler — Pasquale stressed his team will not look past UIC and will be ready for today’s two games.
“As I told the guys, enjoy this win for about 30 minutes, because this series hasn’t been won yet,” Pasquale said. “You can see how much [UIC] swing it, so we haven’t done anything in this series yet. We just won game one, and it’s the best of three.”
Clayton said the team will enjoy some “good rest” before getting ready for today’s games, beginning at 11 a.m.
Pasquale said the best way to prepare is to forget about it.
“[UIC] coach Mike Dee is going to tell them it was only one game and it doesn’t matter what the score was,” Pasquale said. “We have to do that too. They’re forgetting about it, and we have to forget about it to. We’ll think about it Monday, or maybe over Easter dinner.”