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YSU drops home opener to Pitt
Penguins drop home opener to Pitt
NILES
The Youngstown State baseball team didn’t do much right in the first two innings of its home opener at Eastwood Field on Wednesday.
As a result, Pittsburgh took advantage and jumped out to a big early lead and never looked back, defeating the Penguins 8-4.
“We dug ourselves into a hole that was kind of tough to crawl back out of when you’re down by that much,” Penguins manager Steve Gillispie said. “Once you’re down to teams like Pitt 6-0, it’s tough to come back.”
That was the score when YSU starter D.J. Carr was told his afternoon was done after facing 14 batters over the first two innings. The junior right-hander allowed five earned runs on five hits with four strikeouts and a pair of walks.
“D.J. I thought had good stuff today, but we didn’t do a very good job with some little things defensively behind him,” Gillispie said. “We overthrew a cut-off man, didn’t leave a double play in order, didn’t block a strikeout in the dirt.
“It wasn’t so much that maybe they hit him, that we took him out of a position to maybe be as successful as he could’ve been.”
Pitt (11-12, 4-5 Atlantic Coast Conference) built a comfortable 8-0 lead and starter Sam Mersing cruised the first time through the Penguins’ lineup. Then in the fourth, the sophomore righty began having trouble with his command and YSU’s hottest hitter made him pay.
Senior Jake Fryman turned on a 2-0 pitch and sent it over the left-field wall for the Penguins’ first hit and runs of the game. Jason Shirley, who walked the at-bat before, also scored on the home run.
“I knew he was trying to throw strikes and a good pitch was coming, so I just tried to jump on it,” said Fryman, who has homered in back-to-back games.
“Consistency was a big thing I was trying to work on — shoulder swing, being on time more. I think that’s where I was having trouble last year.”
Mersing exited after the fifth inning for Pitt, but his outing was good enough for him to earn his second win of the season and lower his ERA to 6.08. His relief, Dan Furman, didn’t fare any better against Fryman. Fryman, the Penguins’ designated hitter doubled in the sixth after a Shirley single. Junior Josh Fitch brought them both in with a single to cut the deficit in half.
“He can be streaky at times and he’s on one of those streaks,” Gillispie said of Fryman. “He really has matured as a hitter. That’s what we hope out of him, that there’s some maturity that he can be an example for some of these young guys.”
With a 2-for-3 afternoon, Fryman’s batting average jumped to .400. Cardinal Mooney graduate Boo Vazquez came in as a pinch hitter for Pitt in the sixth and went 1-for-2 with a single.
The Panthers were led by catcher Alex Kowalczyk, who went 3-for-5 with four RBI. The game was scoreless over the final three innings, which was an encouraging sign for the Penguins’ bullpen.
“I think last year this game might have got out of hand,” Fryman said. “This year’s team, we have a little more fight I’d say. We’re never out of any game, so it’s a lot more fun to play like that.”
Just more than a third of the way through the season, Gillispie likes the direction his team is headed. The Penguins (5-12, 1-5 Horizon League) are headed into the meat of their schedule with just eight non-league games remaining.
“I think it’s been a good blend of some of the older guys allowing some of the new guys to feel their way through their first year in Division I,” Gillispie said. “So I’m pretty pleased with it, especially considering the different breaks and odd things schedule wise that we’ve had to go through.”