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May 22, 2003
Phillips, Lipinski Lead YSU Past Milwaukee, 9-6
Fairborn, Ohio -- Jim Lipinski and Jim Phillips had
three RBI each as the Youngstown
State baseball team beat
UW-Milwaukee 9-6 in the opening
round of the Horizon League Baseball
Tournament at Nischwitz Stadium on
Thursday afternoon.
With the victory, the Penguins (27-26) advance to Friday's
winner's bracket game against Butler
at 6:30 p.m. YSU earned its
first-ever Horizon League Tournament
win and first in the postseason
since May 20, 1999.
Phillips and Lipinski combined to knock home the Penguins'
final five runs of the game, on
three two-out hits.
"Those hits were big, but everybody stepped up today," Head
Coach Mike Florak said. "Kyle
Sobecki is such a fierce competitor
and we feed off of his effort.
Everybody stepped it up today. That
is what the makeup of this team is
all about."
Sobecki (6-4) went six innings and came back strong after
letting a 4-0 lead get away in the
second by allowing four runs. He
struck out three and walked one
while scattering nine hits. Freshman
Justin Thomas earned his first
career save pitching the last three
innings. Thomas allowed just two
hits and struck out three in his
initial postseason appearance.
Phillips came
through the first time in the fifth
when he hit a two-RBI single off
Geoff Lefeber to put the Penguins in
front 6-4. In the inning, Adam Cox
singled with one out and moved to
second on a wild pitch. After Justin
Banks' fly out, Lipinski and Brian
Boone kept the inning going by
drawing walks to load the bases.
Phillips laced a Lefeber pitch to
left center scoring Cox and
Lipinski.
Two innings later, Phillips ripped a two-out double off Cory
Kleeba to score Lipinski from second
and boost the YSU lead to 7-4.
The Panthers (25-24) scratched out two runs in the bottom of
the seventh and knocked Sobecki from
the contest. Troy Doering and Steve
Sanfilippo singled to open the
inning and Thomas came on to replace
Sobecki. After striking out
Pudlosky, Thomas allowed an RBI
single to Ben Stanczyk and an RBI
ground out to Matt Alexander before
working out of the inning when
Marcellus Dawson grounded out to
second. After that Thomas allowed
one base runner the final two
innings.
Lipinski came through in the top of the eighth inning. With
two outs, he drilled a single of
Stanczyk to put YSU in front 9-6.
The Penguins built a 4-0 lead early scoring three times in
the first and by adding a run in the
second.
In the first inning, Kendall Schlabach led off the game with
a walk and moved over to third when
Brandon Caipen followed with a bunt
single up the first-base line that
was misplayed by the Milwaukee
infield. Charles Schultz scored
Schlabach with an RBI base hit as
Caipen moved up to third. Caipen,
who had three hits, came in to score
when Sanfillipo failed to handle a
Justin Banks ground ball as Schultz
advanced to third. Lipinski hit a
sacrifice fly to center scoring
Schultz to give YSU a 3-0 advantage.
Schlabach came around to score again in the second. After
walking with one out, he stole
second and with two outs scored on a
single to right by Schultz.
Milwaukee came back to tie the game in the bottom of the
second scoring four times.
The first six Panthers hitters of the inning reached base as
Sam Jansen, Troy Doering, Sanfillipo
and Stanczyk each had RBI. UWM tied
the game at four when Stanczyk
singled home Pitrof with one out.
Sobecki then worked out of the
bases-loaded jam when David Michna
hit into an inning-ending double
play.
With the loss, Milwaukee -- the defending tournament champion
-- will play top-seed
Illinois-Chicago at 2:30 p.m. |
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