March 13, 2008 | Dayton Box Score | Xavier Box Score

Klein Pitches Penguins to 6-1 Victory Over Xavier in Doubleheader Split

    Xenia, Ohio -- Freshman Phil Klein held Xavier to one run over 6.1 innings in his first collegiate start, and Youngstown State had a season-high 15 hits en route to a 6-1 victory on Thursday evening.
    The Penguins (2-8) bounced back to defeat the Musketeers (3-7) after falling 4-2 to a Dayton squad that won its seventh straight game.
    Klein allowed four hits, walked one and struck out five in his 94-pitch winning effort. Sean Lucas had three hits and a career-high four RBIs while David Leon had three hits and scored twice.
    "Klein did a great job staying ahead in the count and got some good defense behind him to get his first collegiate win," head coach Rich Pasquale said after rewarding the pitcher with the game ball and the lineup card. "When you drop the first game of a doubleheader, it really takes a lot for a team to focus on the process instead of the outcome and come out and take the second game. I thought we did an outstanding job with that."
    After failing to score against Xavier in a 7-0 defeat Tuesday, the Penguins took the lead in the first and never trailed.
    Leon reached on an infield single to start the game and scored three batters later when Lucas ripped the first pitch into right for a double.
    The Musketeers, who defeated 23rd-ranked Louisville on Tuesday, played small ball in the third to tie the score. Drew Schmidt walked to start the inning, advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt and went to third on a balk. He then scored on John McCambridge's groundout to short.
    Klein worked out of a jam in the fourth when Xavier put runners at the corners with one out. Billy O'Conner hit one right back to the pitcher, and Klein tagged out Bobby Freking trying to score from third.
    Anthony Munoz scored on Lucas' infield single in the fifth, and the Penguins blew the game open in the sixth with four runs on four hits. Leon brought in Cory Hornyak on an infield single to break the tie, and C.J. Morris scored when Josh Page was beaned with the bases loaded. Lucas then plated Leon and Munoz on a two-out  double to center.
    Xavier threatened to get close in the seventh after an error, walk and bunt single loaded the bases with one out. But reliever Joe Antinone came in and induced McCambridge into an inning-ending double play.
    Antinone worked around a leadoff double in the eighth, and Ryan Wackerman threw a perfect ninth.
    Xavier starter Charlie Leesman allowed six runs on 12 hits in 5.1 innings to take the loss.
    Against Dayton in the early matchup, the Penguins held a 9-7 edge in the hits column but stranded four runners at third base and saw Dayton score three runs on balls that did not leave the infield.
    After YSU was turned away scoreless with a runner on third and one out in the top of the second, Dayton was able to execute in the bottom of the inning as Ryan Nevill scored from third on Jimmy Roesinger's fielder's choice.
    Anthony Porter tied the score in the third when he capped a three-hit inning with a two-out RBI single to center that plated Munoz.
    The Flyers got a run in the fourth on Cole Tyrell's solo homer, and a double steal set up another RBI groundout for Roesinger in the sixth.
    YSU got within one in the seventh when Hornyak doubled and eventually scored on a Leon sacrifice fly, but Dayton answered right back with a run on a two-out infield single in the seventh to go back up two.
    YSU starter Lucas Engle allowed three runs on five hits in five innings in a losing effort. Quinn Haselhorst went four innings and allowed one run to pick up the win for Dayton.
    The Penguins will play Xavier again on Friday at 3 p.m.