Banks, Dosch named All-HL

Staff report

Despite a last-place finish, Youngstown State placed Jeremy Banks and Drew Dosch on the Horizon League first team for baseball on Tuesday.

Banks, a senior from Steubenville, was named a designated hitter on the all-league team.

He led the Horizon League in batting (.386), slugging percentage (.586) and on-base percentage (.471). Despite playing only 37 games and having 145 at-bats because of an injury, Banks was sixth in the Horizon League with 14 doubles, and his five homers and 42 RBIs were seventh best.

Dosch, a sophomore from Canal Winchester, was among the Horizon’s most improved players.

He was second in the league in homers (8) and third in average (.362), total bases (111) and slugging percentage (.536).

The third baseman was also fourth in hits (75), sixth in on-base percentage (.420) and ninth in RBIs (38). His six sacrifice flies lead the conference, and his 112 fielding assists rank sixth.

Dosch raised his batting average by 100 points, posted 19 more extra-base hits, scored 19 more runs and recorded 27 more RBIs than in his freshman year.

Youngstown State opens league tournament play today at 5 p.m. in Chicago.

The Penguins (9-42, 7-23) are the No. 6 seed in the tournament, and will take on No. 3 seed Milwaukee (26-25, 18-11) at Les Miller Field.

The other first-round game will match No. 4 seed UIC against No. 5 Butler.

The YSU-Milwaukee winner will play No. 2 seed Wright State on Thursday at 4 p.m., while the UIC-Butler winner will play No. 1 Valparaiso at 9 p.m. on Thursday.

The losers of today’s game will play in an elimination-round contact Thursday at 11 a.m.

Freshman Russ Harless will start on the mound today for the Penguins. Harless has made 20 appearances, nine of which have been starts. He has a 2-6 record and a 5.27 ERA in 70 innings. Harless’ 47-11 strikeout-to-walk ratio is best on the team and 72nd-best in the nation.

Milwaukee won its final eight conference games of the season, including a sweep of Wright State the final weekend, knocking the Raiders out of first place.

Milwaukee won five of six games against YSU this season, with two wins coming by one run. The Panthers led the Horizon League with 52 stolen bases. Paul Hoenecke leads Milwaukee with a .317 batting average, 40 runs and 38 RBIs. Eric Semmelhack will start against YSU after finishing the season with a 5-6 record and a 3.47 ERA. The junior right-hander went 2-0 against YSU during the season.