YSU baseball defeated by UIC

Staff report

Chicago

UIC got a career performance from starting pitcher Tim Suminski to beat Youngstown State 5-0 and eliminate the Penguins from the Horizon League baseball tournament on Saturday.

The fourth-seeded Flames then defeated No. 1 Valparaiso, 4-3, forcing a winner-take-all championship game today at Noon.

The Penguins (11-44) finished third in the tournament for the third straight season.

Suminski, who made just one start during the regular season, did not allow a hit over the final five innings. He surrendered just four hits in the game and struck out three.

Youngstown State threatened several times against the UIC left-hander, but the Penguins couldn’t come up with the big hit.

Jeremy Banks was robbed of a RBI single in the first when UIC shortstop Alex Lee made a diving grab on a liner up the middle, and Suminski got Craig Goubeaux to foul out with the bases loaded in the fourth. Kevin Hix then had a RBI single taken away in the seventh when his grounder up the middle ricocheted off the rubber to Lee, who threw him out at first with a runner on second.

YSU starter Russ Harless, pitching on two days rest, allowed two earned runs in 41/3 innings. Kevin McCulloh, who also had a heavy workload early in the tournament, allowed two runs in 21/3 innings. Nic Manuppelli did not allow a run in the final 11/3 innings.

“Those three guys pitched with a lot of heart today, and I’m proud of their effort” YSU coach Rich Pasquale said. “We played hard all year, but we didn’t always get the results we wanted. It was nice to be rewarded for our hard work this week, and we played hard until the final out.”