Saturday, March 29, 2014
By Joe Scalzo
NILES
For Youngstown State senior Phil Lipari, the worst thing about his last home opener wasn’t the 4-2 loss to Wright State.
It also wasn’t the windy, chilly weather or the fact that the Penguins dropped to 3-15.
No. The worst thing about his last home opener was that it was his last home opener.
“It’s depressing,” he said after Friday’s game at Eastwood Field. “I don’t want to be a senior. I want to go back to being a freshman and have four more years.”
His previous three couldn’t have gone much worse — the Penguins went 41-128 from 2011-13 — but, record aside, this year’s team is showing signs of growth.
The Penguins had nine hits against the talented Raiders (13-11, 7-0 Horizon League), who lead the league in ERA.
YSU committed just one error and got solid pitching from starter Patrick O’Brien (51/3 innings pitched, three runs) and relievers Alex Frey (one run in two innings) and Josh North (no runs, no hits over 12/3 innings).
“I think for those fans that got to see us play for the first time this year, this is pretty indicative of how we’ve done,” YSU coach Steve Gillispie said. “We’ve been fairly clean defensively, we’ve had opportunities to score and didn’t take advantage of them and we’ve been OK on the mound.
“I think we are better. We’re a more talented team top to bottom than we were a year ago and some of the guys that are back stepped up.”
One of those is Lipari, a Poland High graduate who earned second-team all-conference honors last season. He went 2 for 4 on Friday with his second career home run, a two-run shot into the right-field bullpen.
“I really couldn’t tell you what happened,” he said of the homer. “I don’t hit a lot of them. I didn’t really know [about that one] until it went over the fence.”
When asked if it was wind-assisted, he smiled and said, “Absolutely. I’m not that strong.”
Matt Sullivan added two hits and Jason Shirley scored the other run for YSU, which hadn’t played a home game since May 24 of last year. The Penguins canceled last weekend’s home-opening series with Milwaukee and, thanks to a sketchy forecast, has already moved today’s game up from 2 p.m. to 11 a.m.
Sean Murphy had three hits and scored twice for Wright State, which scored single runs in the second, fifth, sixth and eighth innings. Brad Macciocchi and Jason DeFevers each added three hits and John Brodner hit a solo homer.
Travis Hisson (2-3) gave up both runs in 71/3 innings to get the win.
Lipari’s first home opener was in 2011, when the Penguins lost to then-NAIA member Walsh University, beginning a three-year stretch of futility that may finally be slowing.
Lipari can see progress, even if it’s not showing up in the standings.
“It’s just frustrating because our record doesn’t indicate how good of a team we are,” he said. “We’ve been swinging the bat, the pitchers have been pitching phenomenal and the defense is coming along.
“We’re gonna get there. It’s just a matter of when we start seeing results.”