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Marcus Heath connects for three hits, helps YSU snap April skid
By Greg Gulas
NILES
For a team that had yet to win in April, the Youngstown State University baseball team looked like world-beaters Friday at Eastwood Field.
Freshman Russ Harless pitched six strong innings for his first win of the season while Kevin McCulloh and Nic Manuppelli combined for three innings of relief perfection as the Penguins stymied the University of Illinois/Chicago, 11-3, in the opener of a three-game Horizon League series.
“We’ve put so much heart and effort into this, it’s just so great to see it finally come together,” YSU coach Rich Pasquale said. “There have been so many tough losses, yet we’ve kept at it because this is the game that we love to play.
“Russ started the season in the bullpen but we could see the way he worked out of jams that he was someone very special,” Pasquale said. “He attacks hitters and goes after them so we felt it was time to get him into the starting rotation.
“He threw 100 pitches today and started to get up in the count so we took him out,” Pasquale said. “Both Kevin and Nic then did an excellent job over the final three innings in relief.”
UIC (16-23, 9-10) struck first in their half of the second inning when Alex Jurich scored on a throwing error by Penguins shortstop Padraic Williams.
The Penguins (5-34, 3-16) knotted the score at 1-1 in their half of the second when Marcus Heath scored on Craig Goubeaux’s ground out.
Heath had three of the Penguins’ 14 hits.
YSU took the lead for good, scoring four times in the third inning for a 5-1 margin.
The big blow was designated hotter Jeremy Banks’ two-run double, his team leading 12th of the season and team best 29th run batted in.
Banks, who has missed 14 games due to a shoulder injury, called the win very big.
“This win says a lot about our team,” Banks said. “We knew at the beginning of the season that we had all of the components in place for a good year, but it just hasn’t happened.
“When Russ put up a zero in the first and then gave us six strong innings, we just felt good things were going to happen,” Banks said.
After the Flames cut the lead to 5-3 in the third inning, the Penguins increased their lead to 10-3 with two runs in the fifth inning and three more in the sixth. The big blows were run-scoring singles by Banks and Heath.
A solo home run by Drew Dosch in the seventh rounded out the scoring for both teams.
Dosch, who is fifth in the Horizon League in hitting, went three-for-five with three runs scored and a run batted in.
“We play every game like it is our first of the year, but the key today was that there was plenty of energy; both offensively and defensively,” Dosch said.
“Every hitter, one through nine was swinging and putting the barrel of the bat on the ball. When everyone hits, it’s contagious and so much easier to execute,” Dosch said.
Harless (1-3) was pleased that the Penguins started the series with a win.
“We finally put it all together — it was definitely a good feeling to see everything finally go our way,” Harless said.