YSU baseball falls to Valparaiso in 2011 Horizon League Baseball Championship

Staff report

DAYTON

Valparaiso scored three runs in the bottom of the seventh to rally and defeat the Youngstown State baseball team 8-6 in an elimination game at the 2011 Horizon League Baseball Championship.

The No. 4 Crusaders move on to play No. 1 Wright State in the championship round while No. 6 YSU bows out of the tournament in third place.

The Penguins finish the season 14-41, but they had a strong week here.

Youngstown State last won two games in the Horizon League Tournament in 2007, and the Penguins finished at least third for the first time since 2005.

The only better year in the postseason was 2004 when the Penguins went 4-0 and won the Horizon League Baseball Championship en route to a berth in the Austin Regional.

After eliminating No. 2 Illinois-Chicago Saturday morning and beating No. 3 Milwaukee in the opening round, the Penguins gave the fourth-seeded Crusaders all they could handle.

Youngstown State built a 3-0 lead after the top of the third and led 6-5 after the top of the seventh.

Against Illinois-Chicago, Blake Aquadro threw 5.2 innings of shutout relief, and the Youngstown State baseball team got solid contributions throughout the lineup.

The Penguins jumped out to an 8-1 lead, and Aquadro brought calmness once UIC got within one after four innings. While the sophomore lefty from Memphis kept putting up zeros, the offense added a run in the seventh and three more in the ninth.

YSU’s top five hitters in the line-up combined for 12 hits, eight runs and 11 RBIs. Freshman Chris Mitko drove in a game-high four runs, and leadoff hitter Drew Dosch scored four times. Jeremy Banks and Joe Iacobucci both had three hits and two RBIs.

UIC starter Tim Suminski struggled with his command early, and the Penguins took advantage by scoring four runs in three hits and four walks in 1.1 innings.