May 23, 2002
Penguins Play Butler in League Tournament Opener
    The Youngstown State baseball team makes their first appearance in the Horizon League Tournament on Thursday night when the Penguins (18-24) open play in the double-elimination tournament against Butler (32-21) at 6:30 at Jacobs Field, home of the Cleveland Indians, in Cleveland. The third-seeded Penguins and fourth-seeded Bulldogs played three close ballgames in the regular season with the two squads combining for 11 runs in 23 innings.
    The winner of the YSU-Butler contest plays the winner of the UW-Milwaukee against Cleveland State game at 6:30 p.m. on Friday while the loser plays the winner of the UIC-Detroit contest at 2:30 p.m., also on Friday.
    Between 1992 and 2001, Youngstown State was a member of the Mid-Continent Conference and the Penguins were involved in six tournaments, including the past five years, during their tenure. YSU posted a 3-12 mark in those six tournaments winning single games in 1995 (4-3 over Eastern Illinois), 1999 (14-12 over Valparaiso) and 2000 (6-1 over Southern Utah). Dating back to the 2000 Mid-Con Tournament, the Penguins have lost four consecutive postseason games. Under Head Coach Mike Florak, YSU is 2-6 in the postseason.
   The Penguins ended a tough season winning six of their last nine games and finished third in the Horizon League with an 11-8 mark. YSU played just 42 games during the year because of poor weather throughout the Midwest. The Penguins had 16 games canceled because of the weather or field conditions.

Schlabach, Phillips Earn League Accolades
    Youngstown State sophomore outfielder Kendall Schlabach was named to the Horizon League first-team while freshman outfielder Jim Phillips was named to the Horizon League's All-Newcomer team, the league announced on Wednesday.
    Schlabach hit .384 during the regular season and was named to an all-conference first-team for the second consecutive year after being named first-team All Mid-Con in 2001. He leads the team in runs scored, hits, triples, total bases, slugging percentage, stolen bases and on-base percentage. Phillips had a solid first season hitting .324, second-best on the team, including a .385 average in league action.

Penguins Baseball News and Notes
    Sophomore Kendall Schlabach, who leads the team with a .384 batting average, is bidding to become just the seventh player in school history to lead YSU in hitting in consecutive seasons. • Jim Lipinski hit two home runs against West Virginia State on March 14 and Tim Stacey hit two homers at Morehead State on March 16 for YSU’s multi-homer games this season. • Schlabach and Lipinski are the only two Penguins who have played in all 42 games this season. • Jonathan Smart has pitched seven innings (vs. Cleveland State) and 7.1 innings (vs. Butler) in his last two outings. Prior to that, Smart’s longest appearance of his career was six innings against Chicago State in 2001. • Schlabach leads the team in eight offensive categories. • Stacey, Adam Cox and Jim Lipinski are tied for the team lead with four home runs. • Cox enters the tournament on a hot streak with five hits in his last eight at bats in the final two games. Of his five hits, three are doubles and one is a homer. • In the shutout win over Bethany on March 20, four pitchers combined to strike out 16 batters. • The Penguins have not won a postseason game since May 17, 2000 when they defeated Southern Utah in Tulsa, Okla. • The Horizon League Tournament marks the Penguins’ first neutral site games of the year. • YSU swept four games from Wright State for its first league sweep. • YSU is playing its 46th season of baseball this year. This is the 53rd year of the program, which was suspended for seven seasons in the 1950’s.