May 6, 2006

Caipen's Single, Game Two Rally Give Penguins Doubleheader Sweep

    Niles, Ohio -- Senior Brandon Caipen hit a game-winning RBI single in the ninth of game one and Youngstown State rallied from three runs down in game two in a doubleheader sweep of UIC on Saturday afternoon at Eastwood Field.
    Caipen's single capped off starter Eric Shaffer's best career outing against the Flames as the Penguins took game one 2-1. YSU trailed 7-4 through 3 1/2 innings before rallying to win 12-7.
    The doubleheader sweep gave the Penguins two much needed conference wins with six games remaining. YSU is now 12-12 in the Horizon League and one-and-a-half games behind UW-Milwaukee and one game behind Wright State for second place. UIC fell to 27-17 overall and 17-6 in league play.
    Ryan Sellman finished off a strong week by picking up the win in game one and earning the save in game two. With the score tied 1-1 in game one, Sellman threw 1 1/3 innings scoreless innings in relief of Shaffer to set up Caipen's heroics. He then came in with the tying run on first in the eighth in the nightcap and threw two scoreless innings.
    The Penguins took a 1-0 lead in the fifth in game one as Justin Banks plated John Koehnlein with a two-out single to center in front of a diving Larry Gempp Jr.
    Shaffer kept the Flames scoreless through seven innings before surrendering an unearned run in the eighth that tied the score. Gempp Jr. hit a one-out single, advanced to third on Justin Johnson's single and scored when Ben Trotter's two-out grounder took a nasty hop at short.
    J.D. Hannan singled to start YSU's ninth and, after a passed ball, moved to third on Josh Page's sacrifice bunt. Reliever Jason Foster got Charles Schultz to pop out for the second out of the inning, but Caipen came up in the clutch and hit a 3-2 fastball back up the middle to plate Hannan for the win.
    Shaffer allowed seven hits and struck out four in 7 2/3 innings. UIC starter Joe Skinner was charged with both runs and allowed 10 hits in 8 1/3 innings.
    In game two, YSU batted around and plated four runs on four hits in the first to take an early lead.
    UIC chipped away with three runs in the second, one in the third and three in the fourth to take a 7-4 advantage, but Chris Dennis and Sellman kept the Flames scoreless the rest of the way to pave the way for the offense's late burst.
    The Penguins got within one with single tallies in the fourth and fifth innings before taking an 8-7 lead on Brent Parks' single in the seventh. YSU then added four insurance runs in the eighth.
    Parks finished with a career-high five RBIs and Erich Diedrich had three hits for YSU.
    The Penguins will break for the week for finals before a big weekend series with UW-Milwaukee beginning Friday at 7 p.m.