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May 14, 2003
Caipen's Three-Run Blast in Ninth Leads YSU to 7-6 Victory
Toledo, Ohio --
Brandon Caipen belted a three-run
home run in the top of the ninth to
highlight a four-run inning as the
Youngstown State Penguins rallied
from a 6-3 deficit to defeat the
Toledo Rockets 7-6 at Scott Park on
Wednesday afternoon.
Trailing 6-3 heading into the ninth, Brian Boone hit his
first career home run to bring the
Penguins (25-25) within two, then
Caipen's blast proved to be the game
winner. Caipen finished
3-for-5 with a career-high six RBIs
while Justin Thomas picked up his
fifth win out of the bullpen.
Toledo (20-27) jumped out to an early two run lead in the
first inning off of YSU starter
Chris Dennis. Sean Dobson drew
a leadoff walk to get the Rockets
going then Mitch Maier hit a two-run
homer to leftcenter.
The Rockets scored a run in the third and tallied another in
the fourth on a solo home run by
Chris Arvay to take a 4-0 lead.
YSU got within one by plating three runs in the bottom of the
fifth. After Jim Lipinski
reached on a throwing error and Jim
Phillips was hit by a pitch, Ty
Furino laid down a sacrifice bunt to
put runners on second and third.
Toledo's Kurt Woeste then hit
Kendall Schlabach to load the bases
for Caipen, who cleared the bases
with a three-run double down the
right field line.
After a scoreless sixth, the Rockets tallied two runs in the
seventh to take a 6-3 lead.
Boone's one-out solo blast in the ninth got the Penguins
within two at 6-4, then Jim Phillips
reignited the offense with a double
to rightcenter. Two batters
later, Schlabach drew a two-out walk
to put two runners on for Caipen's
homer.
Thomas allowed a leadoff walk in the ninth, but he got Maier
to fly out with the tying run on
third to seal the Penguin victory.
Dennis, who did not factor in the decision threw six innings
and struck out seven hitters.
Ben Lovell, one of Toledo's eight
pitchers in the contest, picked up
the loss.
YSU's 25 victories is the highest win total in Head Coach
Mike Florak's five-year stay and the
most since 1997.
Charles Schultz went 1-for-4 to extend his hitting streak to
eight games.
The Penguins will conclude their regular season with a
two-day, four-game series against
Marshall. The first two games
of the series will be Friday at 3
p.m. with games three and four on
Saturday at 1 p.m. YSU's
seniors will be honored on Friday. |
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