March 26, 2008

Penguins Travel to Akron Looking for Third Straight Victory

    Youngstown -- The Youngstown State baseball team is hoping to carry the momentum from yesterday's victory to win its third straight today at Akron at 3 p.m.
    Freshman Phil Klein will take the mound for the Penguins, who posted season-high totals in hits and runs in a 12-4 win over IUP on Tuesday.
    Klein, a 6-7 right-hander, is coming off the best outing of his young career. In his first start against Xavier on March 13, Klein allowed one run on four hits in 6.1 innings to earn his first victory. He also threw a scoreless inning out of the bullpen at Alabama on March 9.
    If the offense is as productive as it was Tuesday, Klein will get plenty of run support. The Penguins banged out 18 hits, including seven for extra bases, against the Crimson Hawks to win its second straight game. YSU also defeated Butler 2-1 on Saturday.
    Redshirt freshman Joe Iacobucci went 4-for-4 with four RBIs in his first career four-hit game, and Josh Page had four hits and scored four times. Sophomore Anthony Munoz also hit his first career home run against IUP.
    The Penguins lost two contests against the Zips last season and have dropped three straight dating back to 2006.
    The Zips are coming off a 6-5 setback to Duquesne on Tuesday in its home opener. The Dukes jumped ahead 5-0 through six innings before Akron tied the contest with a run in the seventh and four in the eighth. Duquesne scored the game-winner with a two-out double in the ninth.
    Akron enters today's contest with a record of 10-8 and winners of five of their last eight. As a team the Zips are batting .303 and average almost 6.4 runs per game.