May 7, 2009

Penguins Try to Move Up Standings in Final Horizon League Weekend

    Youngstown -- Youngstown State wraps up its Horizon League season with four games this weekend at Eastwood Field. The Penguins play a doubleheader at 3 p.m. Friday against Wright State and a double-dip at noon Saturday against Valparaiso.

    The Penguins are currently fifth in the Horizon League standings with a 9-11 mark while Wright State (10-9) is third and Valparaiso (9-9) is fourth. YSU is .006 percentage points ahead of Cleveland State (8-10) in the battle to stay out of the Horizon League Tournament’s play-in game.

    YSU opened the league season at Wright State on March 20 with a 7-4 win behind Aaron Swenson, but the Raiders took the next two games with wins in their last at bat.

    The Penguins are coming off a three-game set at Valpo last weekend in which they outscored the Crusaders 24-18 but won just once. Phil Klein got the win for YSU in the series finale (13-4) when he allowed four runs and struck out a career-high 10 in 6.2 innings. YSU lost game one 6-4 and game two 8-7, which is when Valpo scored all of its eight runs in the sixth.

Right Off The Bat

• YSU’s 4.14 ERA in Horizon League games ranks second in the circuit only to Milwaukee. The Guins have an 8.97 ERA in non-conference contests.
• YSU went 1-2 against both Wright State and Valparaiso earlier in the year but outscored both teams in the series. The Penguins outscored WSU 17-16 and Valpo 24-18.
• Of YSU’s 11 Horizon League losses, six have been by one run and one has been by two. Five of the six one-run losses have come in the last at bat.
• The Penguins hit more home runs (4) last weekend at Valpo than they did in 16 games in April (3).