By Robert Hayes
The University of Illinois Chicago Flames came into Eastwood Field and outhit the Youngstown State University Penguins baseball team to take the final game of their weekend series by a final score of 8-3.
YSU coach Dan Bertolini believed UIC just outplayed YSU.
“I thought UIC played a really good game,” Bertolini said. “They made some good contact. I thought the bat was swung really well and didn’t get a lot of results. They made some great plays on the field, they really saved some innings for them.”
Lucas Nasonti had an RBI single in the bottom of the second inning to bring in Dylan Swarmer. Later in the inning, Glenn was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to score Nasonti.
Glenn would tattoo a ball to left center on an 0-2 count in the bottom of the fifth for his fourth home run of the season. He went 8-12 with two home runs and seven RBI during the UIC series.
Bertolini talked about Glenn’s hitting of late.
“I really think he’s been swinging the bat really well the last couple of weeks,” Bertolini said. “He haven’t had a lot of results from it, but we thought we could see it coming. He had two hits against Wright State in the last game of the series, and had two hits against Kent, and had a huge weekend this weekend.”
The Flames (12-13, 7-4) would hit three home runs over the course of the game, to help push themselves to victory over the Penguins.
Marco DeFalco started for YSU, as he was tagged for his first loss of the season. He tossed 4.1 innings, and was responsible for giving up three runs on eight hits.
Bertolini still felt DeFalco gave a good effort.
“He battled, he kept us in the game, I don’t think he had his best stuff today, but he found a way to make some pitches when he needed to,” Bertolini said. “[UIC] got some good hitters, and we’ve done a really good job with them, but you make a couple of mistakes, and they can punish us.”
Zach Farrar has been battling injuries so far this season, but he saw an increase in playing time over the weekend. Bertolini sees him having an more active role moving forward.
“He’s [Farrar] doing a great job,” Bertolini said. “He’s just had some minor things that have held him back, whether sickness, or a couple of injuries that have held him from being in the lineup consistently. He’s given some great at-bats and working hard so we’re looking forward to changing his role and figuring out where he can go from here.”
The Penguins (7-24, 4-8) took two out of three games from the first place Flames over the weekend and look to carry some of that momentum into a midweek match up against the Penn State Nittany Lions on Tuesday.
“We just got to continue to do what we’ve been doing,” Bertolini said. “Play good baseball and play clean, I think the last two games we didn’t make any errors so that’s really what we’re working on.”
Looking forward past Penn State, YSU will host the University of Toledo this Wednesday at Eastwood Field, starting at 5 p.m.
