Wright St. tops YSU in Horizon game

Staff report

GARY, IND.

Youngstown State pounded out 14 hits and had the tying run on base in the ninth inning, but came up just short against Wright State in a Horizon League baseball tournament game on Thursday night.

C.J. Morris had three hits for the Penguins (22-33) and Anthony Porter hit a home run, but three errors by YSU defensively led to four unearned runs for the No. 1-seed Raiders (30-23), who advanced to play Milwaukee today in the winner’s bracket championship game.

Youngstown State, the No. 6 seed, will play No. 3 seed UIC for the second time in three days today at Noon.

On Wednesday the Penguins defeated UIC 8-4.

The winner of the YSU-UIC game will return at 4 p.m. to face No. 4 seed Valparaiso, which lost to No. 2 seed Milwaukee 3-1 on Thursday.

Derek Carr, Jacke Healey and Tom Clayton all had two hits for the Penguins against Wright State, and Jeremy Banks had two RBIs. Two of Morris’ hits were doubles, as Clayton also had a two-bagger.

Corey Vukovic started for Youngstown State, but lasted just 31/3 innings, allowing five runs — three earned. Phil Klein, Alex Frey, Kevin McCulloh and Eric Marzec also got in the game, with McCulloh (1-5) absorbing the loss. He allowed two runs (one earned) in 11/3 innings.

Youngstown State trailed 1-0 after an inning, but tied the game in the top of the third.

Wright State led 3-1 after three innings, and 5-3 after four.

Youngstown State took a 6-5 lead in the top of the sixth inning and made it 7-5 in the seventh, but the Raiders rallied with three runs in the bottom of the seventh to lead 8-7, and added two more runs in the bottom of the seventh.

Youngstown Scored a run in the ninth inning and had runners at first and third with one out before Jordan Marker struck out Banks.

Greg Robinson then came on and got YSU pinch-hitter Casey Holland to ground out to second for the final out of the game.

Garret Gray had three hits to lead the Raiders, while Casey McGrew had two hits, including a double, and three RBIs. Quention Cate singled twice and had two RBIs.