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April 15, 2003
Penguins Rally, Fall Short in Tenth, 9-8
Niles, Ohio -- The
Youngstown State baseball team
(15-16) rallied from an early 8-0
deficit and forced extra innings,
but the Akron Zips (13-18) prevailed
in the tenth inning on a Dan Swallie
RBI single up the middle with the
infield drawn in for the
game-winning run in a 9-8 victory on
Wednesday evening at Cafaro Field.
Akron jumped out to an early 8-0 lead in the fourth inning,
but YSU chipped away by plating
three runs in the fourth, three in
the fifth, one in the seventh and
one in the eighth to tie the game at
eight. Swallie earned the win
on the mound for the Zips, throwing
1.2 scoreless innings in relief.
Jim Lipinski led the Penguins with a
solo home run and three RBIs.
Tied at eight in the top of the tenth, Akron's Doug Kruthaupt
hit a leadoff double to the
left-centerfield gap to spark the
offense. He moved over to
third on a sacrifice bunt from
Marcus Geiselman and scored the
game-winner on Swallie's single.
Swallie retired the Penguins in
order in the bottom of the tenth to
seal the victory.
The Zips got off to an early 3-0 advantage by banging out
three straight hits to start the top
of the first. Israel Victor
lead off with a double down the left
field line and scored one batter
later on an RBI single from Brian
Kimutis. Kimutis eventually
scored on a fielder’s choice and
Kruthaupt scored on an RBI single
from Craig Welch.
Akron added two runs in the
second, one in the third inning and
two more in the fourth to claim an
8-0 lead.
YSU cut the lead to five by putting up a three-spot in the
bottom of the fourth. After
Akron’s Ross Liersemann hit Charles
Schultz and Adam Cox to put runners
on first and second with one out,
Jim Lipinski belted a two-run double
to the left-centerfield gap to get
the Penguins on the board.
Justin Banks added an RBI single
that scored Lipinski.
The Penguins kept the rally going in the fifth, scoring three
more runs to get within two.
Kendall Schlabach drew a leadoff
walk and scored on a sacrifice fly
from Cox, then Jim Phillips,
Lipinski, Banks and Gary Hinkson
drew four-straight walks to decrease
the Akron advantage to 8-6.
Lipinski's solo blast in the seventh to left center in the
seventh got the Penguins within one,
then pinch-runner J.D. Hannan scored
on a double steal to tie the game at
eight in the eighth.
Hubbard native Kevin Libeg pitched two innings in his first
collegiate start but did not factor
in the decision. Josh Wells
and Paul Yates kept the Penguins in
the contest by pitching two
scoreless innings each in relief
while Jon Smart was tagged with the
loss.
Lipinski's homer was the 17th of his career, which puts him
fourth on YSU's all-time career home
run list. Andrew Clough claims
the top spot with 23 home runs.
The Penguins will travel to Kent State tomorrow to take on
the Golden Flashes at 3 p.m. |
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