April 2, 2008 | Box Score

Marzec's 14th-Inning RBI Single Lifts Penguins Past Duquesne, 8-7

    Struthers, Ohio -- Eric Marzec singled home C.J. Morris in the bottom of the 14th inning to cap a three-run rally and lift Youngstown State past Duquesne in a five-hour marathon baseball game on Wednesday evening.
    Marzec's game-winner followed a two-run double by C.J. Morris as the Penguins answered Mike Carroll's two-run home run that came in the top of the 14th.
    The win snapped Duquesne's 11-game winning streak, which ranked as the third-longest in the country. YSU improved to 3-0 at home with four more home contests scheduled in the next three days.
    The Penguins and Dukes set the NCAA Division I record for combined hit batsmen with 13, and they tied the Division I record for combined runners left on base with 43. The two teams also combined to use 36 different players and 11 pitchers in the contest that lasted five hours and four minutes.
    Duquesne led by as many as four in the contest, but YSU was able to score one in the fourth, another in the sixth and two in the seventh to tie the score 5-5.
    Both teams left the bases loaded in the 13th before Duquesne finally ended the string of six straight scoreless innings in the 14th. Anthony Manley singled to start the inning off of Matt Tucker, and two batters later Carroll blasted a 2-0 pitch over the wall in left center.
    Danny Brown retired David Leon to start the bottom half of the 14th, but an interesting combination of five players came up big for the Penguins afterward. Top hitters John Koehnlein and Erich Diedrich, who finally had at bats in the same game for the first time this season after nagging injuries, hit back-to-back singles to put runners on first and second. Morris, an unlikely hero entering the year that is batting 258 points higher this season, then hit the game-tying double down the left field line. Senior Mike Turnjanica was beaned as a pinch hitter to set up Marzec. Marzec, a sophomore who was batting .114 two weeks ago, came up with his seventh hit in his last 14 at bats to bring home Morris from second.
    "These guys are learning to just keep fighting and to keep believing that it's not over," head coach Rich Pasquale said. "They're being aggressive, and they're believing that we can win regardless of who we're playing and how late in the game it is.
    "They're staying focused on playing the game hard and playing it the right way. When you do that you get good results."
    Marzec not only came up big at the plate, he also held the Dukes scoreless from the mound in the 11th through 13th innings. He followed an impressive stretch of relief provided by Cody Dearth, Corey Vukovic and Aaron Swenson. Dearth threw 2.2 scoreless innings after allowing three in the fourth, Vukovic pitched 2.1 scoreless frames and Swenson hurled a scoreless 10th.
    Although the Penguins had three errors, Pasquale emphasized the big plays the team made defensively when the game was on the line. Leon was particularly tough at short with nine assists and three putouts.
    The first inning for the Dukes was a foreshadow to the next 13. They got a run on a single, walk and two hit batsmen, but they were turned away with only one despite having the bases loaded and nobody out. Starter Phil Klein turned a 1-2-3 double play on a grounder up the middle and struck out Eric Morrison.
    Pat Kimutis singled home a run in the third to make the score 2-0, but Cory Hornyak hit the first pitch of the bottom of the second over the left centerfield fence to cut the margin to one.
    Duquesne scored three runs on two hits and an error in the fourth to go up 5-1 before YSU started its comeback. Hornyak singled home Marzec in the fourth, Joe Iacobucci was beaned with the bases loaded in the sixth, and Dustin Wachter hit a two-run single in the seventh.
    Tucker was awarded his first collegiate win despite allowing the two-run homer, and Brown dropped to 0-1.
    Marzec and Hornyak finished with three hits apiece for YSU. The top four hitters accounted for 11 hits and seven RBIs, but the bottom five spots batted a combined 3-for-30.
    The Penguins will play Division II Tiffin tomorrow at Eastwood Field at 1 p.m.