Sunday, March 18, 2012
By BRANDON JUDEH
Niles
A frustrating start to the 2012 season continued Saturday for the Youngstown State University Men’s baseball team.
Things got off to a rocky start for YSU sophomore pitcher Patrick O’Brien as he served up a three-run home run to Milwaukee’s Jonathan Capasso in the first inning of a 7-2 defeat.
The Panthers (6-10, 2-0 Horizon League) kept the theme going in the second inning as Mark Strey hooked a solo homer down the left-field line to push the lead to 4-0.
“After giving up four early runs, my mindset was to keep my team in the game and to keep my confidence level up after having a shaky start,” said O’Brien, who retired seven out of the next nine batters he faced.
“Pat is a battler, he has a strong will and he seemed to slow things down and loosen his grip on the ball,” YSU head coach Rich Pasquale said. “He certainly kept us in the game and that’s what you want. He battled and gave us zeros.”
O’Brien (0-4) pitched six innings and gave up five earned runs on six hits.
The Penguins (1-15, 0-2) got on the board in the third inning after a Phil Lipari double led to a sacrifice fly by Drew Dosch to cut the lead to 4-1.
YSU struck again in the sixth inning as an error and a wild pitch led to a run.
YSU scored both of their runs by playing small ball and Pasquale is happy to see his team starting to convert.
“We practice it and it’s nice to see them trusting the stuff that we work on in practice, they are seeing it, trusting it and getting it done and they are starting to get more comfortable,” Pasquale said.
For the most part, the Penguins could not solve Milwaukee pitcher Cale Tassi.
Tassi, who recorded his first win of the season, pitched 71/3 innings and allowed only two unearned runs.
“Tassi kept getting ahead of us and it was anybody’s guess as to what pitch was coming next,” Dosch said. “He controlled all of his pitches, mixed it up on both sides of the plate and he really just kept us off balance.”
Milwaukee put the game away in the eight inning by scoring two runs off of Padriac Williams. One run came via a Phil Striggow homer.
Despite the rough start, O’Brien feels he and his teammates can turn a new leaf with the start of Horizon League play.
“We are looking at the start of conference play as a whole new season, we are starting to hit well and play better, so we are going to try to get a win tomorrow and head into next week 1-2 in the league,” O”Brien said.