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YSU baseball team to host Milwaukee today
By STEVE WILAJ
YOUNGSTOWN
So far, the Youngstown State baseball team has played 17 games, yet only practiced once outdoors (Wednesday afternoon at Eastwood Field).
It’s the consequences of being located in northeastern Ohio — and also a big reason the Penguins (5-12) are learning on the job as they are set to begin a home-opening series today against Milwaukee at 3 p.m. at Eastwood Field.
“It’s still a work in progress,” head coach Steve Gillispie said of his team that features 18 newcomers. “I’m not disappointed in the effort, I’m not disappointed in the skill-level or what we’ve done at times. It’s just the day-in, day-out consistency of winning baseball hasn’t been there. But I do feel confident that will come.”
Although seven games under .500, six of YSU’s 12 losses came after it had a lead through five innings.
Meanwhile, the Penguins downed Missouri twice on March 12 — YSU’s first wins against a true SEC team since 1988 — and won at Ohio, 8-5, in their most-recent game on Tuesday.
“We kept taking advantage,” Gillispie said. “We kept playing and kept coming back at them. It was a pretty good night of offensive execution, which we haven’t had consistently in the past couple weeks.”
The loss snapped a three-game losing skid for YSU, which was swept at Wright State last weekend in its first Horizon League series of the season.
Billy Salem notched three hits and three RBIs to pace the Penguins past Ohio, as the senior infielder — who played at Akron the past three seasons before the program folded — is hitting a team-high .299. However, YSU is only hitting .206 as a team.
As for the Penguins’ pitching, top two starters Jeremy Quinlan and Joe King have been solid — 3.65 and 4.72 ERAs, respectively — while third starter freshman Colin Floyd has struggled a bit with a 7.20 ERA.
“We’re still learning,” Gillispie said. “Our guys understand that we have some talent and that we can play some good baseball. ...But we’re still learning how to add to the lead and protect a lead. A lot of that can be because of the youth on the team.”
This weekend’s home-opening series was originally scheduled to begin Thursday. But due to weather, that game was moved to a doubleheader on Saturday at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. following tonight’s game. King will get the ball in the opener, while Quinlan starts Saturday’s morning contest and Floyd is set to go in the series finale.