By William Staten / The Jambar
Due to inclement weather, the Youngstown State University baseball team debuted a new home field in Pullman Park, located in Butler, Pennsylvania, to open Horizon League play March 13 against Oakland University in a three-game series.
Fifth-year senior Kendal Spencer opened game one with a hit into right center field, which allowed redshirt junior Brady Shannon and senior Brayden Kuriger to score and net YSU at two runs. One inning later, redshirt junior Chyran Humphries hit a solo home run to put the Penguins up, 3-0.
After a scoreless third inning, senior Braden Gebhardt gave up his first earned runs of the season with two home runs by Oakland — one solo home run in the fourth inning and a grand slam in the fifth. The ’Guins responded with a hit by redshirt freshman Nick Miscavage, allowing Spencer to score. Gebhardt was replaced at the start of the seventh inning by sophomore Tyler Heflin, who struck out three batters in the final three innings without giving up a run. Heflin’s performance enabled YSU to rally for the lead with another single by Miscavage, which allowed Spencer and redshirt senior Teddy Ruffner to score in the eighth inning. Heflin closed the game with a 6-5 win.In Game Two on March 14, the Penguins had a similar start. Spencer singled to right field and allowed redshirt junior Nathan Beckley to score in the bottom of the first inning. Oakland quickly returned with a sacrifice fly which allowed a run to score in the top of the second. In the bottom, Ruffner grounded out but allowed a score by redshirt senior Nic Goodwin.
Over the course of the next three innings, YSU went scoreless while Oakland racked up three RBIs and a run scored on a caught steal. During the fourth inning, senior Jack Messmore was taken off the mound in favor of senior Aidan English. In the bottom of the fifth, Beckley doubled down the left-field line for freshman Alex Jang to score, which cut Oakland’s lead to 5-3.
In the top of the sixth inning, a throwing error and a batter hit by a pitch helped load the bases. Oakland hit a three-run home run and extended its lead to five runs. English was then replaced by freshman Bryce Palms after loading the bases again before Palms hit another batter with a pitch.
After the sixth inning, the Penguins took Palms out of the game for junior Braedon Davis and scored on a Shannon two-run home run with Kuringer scoring in the bottom of the seventh.
Oakland continued with an RBI groundout and a two-run home run of their own to extend its lead to 12-5.
Humphries doubled to right center field in the bottom of the eighth, where Ruffner scored. Fifth-year senior Griffin Almond replaced Davis in the top of the ninth in a last-ditch effort to save the game, but Oakland retired the side in order in the bottom of the ninth inning.
The Penguins and Golden Grizzlies met once more March 15 for the final game of the series, with both teams looking for their first series win. After two scoreless innings, redshirt senior Brandon Mikos replaced junior Mikey Rodriques on the mound at the top of the third and prevented a run from being scored off of loaded bases.
Jang broke the ice with an RBI single for Beckley to score in the bottom of the third. Oakland responded two innings later with an RBI double to tie the score at 1-1.
In the bottom of the sixth inning, the Penguins loaded the bases before Goodwin grounded out, as Kuriger scored a second run. Immediately after, Shannon scored on a wild pitch before Humphries was tagged out.
In the top of the seventh, a throwing error by YSU allowed an Oakland runner to score before Mikos was taken out of the game in favor of redshirt senior Sloan Ulrich. The Golden Grizzlies capitalized on the pitching change, to tack up 2 more RBIs and take the lead 4-3.
In the final two innings, Ulrich did not give up a run and struck out three batters, opening the door for the Penguins to retake the lead. In the bottom of the eighth with two runners in scoring position, Humphries struck out swinging. Redshirt senior Garrett Cutting grounded out into a double play to end the game, and the series, with a loss.
Gebhardt remains a top pitcher in the Horizon League, as he leads the conference in ERA, opposing batting average, innings pitched, strikeouts and both earned and unearned runs.
Jang leads the Penguins in batting average with .311, RBIs with five, hits with 14 and OPS among qualified batters with .824.
The Penguins will turn toward a two-week road trip from March 18-29, featuring opponents including the University of Pittsburgh, Georgetown University, Eastern Michigan University and Northern Kentucky University.