YSU baseball team drops Horizon League opener

NKU gets six runs late to defeat YSU

Staff report

Highland Heights, Ky.

A sixth-run eighth inning helped lead Northern Kentucky to a 13-5 win over the Youngstown State baseball team in the Horizon League opener for both teams on Friday at the Bill Aker Baseball Complex.

NKU scored 11 runs over its final four at-bats in a game that featured four lead changes over the first five innings. Each team scored in the second and fifth innings, and the Norse led by just two runs after the seventh before the six-run eighth allowed them to pull away. Neither team was retired in order until the bottom of the sixth inning.

NKU snapped a four-game losing streak to improve to 2-12 overall and 1-0 in league play while YSU drops to 1-15 and 0-1.

The Norse logged 17 hits and eight different players had at least one. Sam Hedges had four hits including two doubles and three RBIs while Andrew Bacon and Jayden Wakeham each had three hits. Bacon and Griffin Doersching each hit two-run homers in the team’s big eighth inning, and Bacon drove in four runs.

Jeff Wehler tied his career high with three hits while also recording an RBI, a stolen base and a run scored for YSU. Phillip Glasser and Drew Dickerson each tied a season high with two hits, and Glasser also scored twice and doubled home a run.

YSU starter Colin Clark struck out a career-high seven batters, but allowed six runs on 11 hits over 42/3 innings in his third loss. The sophomore left-hander fanned at least one batter in four different frames, and had five strikeouts over the first two innings.

The Penguins used a pair of two-out hits in the top of the second inning to score the game’s first run. Dickerson doubled down the right field line, and Tanner Montgomery followed with an RBI single to give YSU an early edge.

NKU starter Sam Williams was responsible for three runs on seven hits over 5.1 innings in his first win of 2019. Joe Martin did not allow a hit and fanned four hitters over three scoreless innings of relief to earn the save.

Dalton Earich was charged with one unearned run on no hits and three walks in 11/3 innings out of the bullpen.

Hake tossed one scoreless inning before Cade Negley and Kip DeShields each surrendered three in the eighth.