May 15, 2007

Penguins Can't Overcome Early Deficit in 8-3 Loss to Akron

    Akron, Ohio -- Akron scored four runs in the first inning and answered two comeback attempts to defeat Youngstown State 8-3 on Tuesday afternoon at Lee Jackson Field.
    YSU scored two runs in the fourth to cut the deficit in half, but Akron answered with three scores in its half of the inning to up the advantage to 7-2.
    John Koehnlein singled twice to increase his hitting streak to 21games, which is the fourth-longest in YSU history. Erich Diedrich, Dustin Wachter, Mike Turjanica and Eric Marzec added two hits apiece for YSU, which will play at Duquesne on Wednesday at 2 p.m.
    The first five Akron hitters singled off of starter Ryan Dunlap, but only two of those hits left the infield. With three runs in, the Zips had the bases loaded and nobody out before Dunlap induced a 4-6-3 double play and a fly out to end the inning.
    Freshman Lee Bainbridge hit his second home run of the season with one out in the fourth for YSU's first run, and Tom Clayton scored on Turjanica's sacrifice fly to make the score 4-2.
    Akron then tallied three runs on four hits, an error and a passed ball in the bottom of the inning.
    Wachter and Turjanica hit back-to-back two out singles in the sixth, and Marzec followed with an RBI double to make the score 7-3. Ryan Frazee and Brett Savage hit back-to-back doubles in the bottom half to re-up the margin to five.
    Savage finished 5-for-5 with two runs scored and two RBIs for Akron, which had 17 singles and no extra-base hits in the game.
    Dunlap suffered the loss, allowing six earned runs in 3 1/3 innings. He had not allowed a run in his first 7 2/3 innings on the hill before yielding four in the first. Alex Earley and Ryan Wackerman threw one scoreless inning apiece, and Joe Antinone allowed one run in 2 2/3 innings.
    Akron starter Zach Yike allowed two runs on five hits in four innings to earn his third win.