YSUsports.com - Baseball: YSU Set to Play UW-Milwaukee in Opening Round of Horizon League Tournament

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May 21, 2007

YSU Set to Play UW-Milwaukee in Opening Round of Horizon League Tournament

    The sixth-seeded Youngstown State baseball team will play third-seeded UW-Milwaukee in the opening round of the Horizon League Tournament in Chicago on Wednesday at 4 p.m. EDT.
    YSU enters the tournament coming off of an up and down regular season in which it endured some growing pains with many new players being counted on for significant innings. The Penguins finished with an overall record of 17-35 and a 9-21 ledger in the Horizon League, but coach Mike Florak has always stressed the importance of preparing for the tournament. In fact, the last time the Penguins were the lowest seed in the 2004 league tournament, they ended up winning all four of their games to capture their first Horizon League title.
    “(The winner) is going to be whoever plays the best this week,” Florak said. “The tournament is always full of surprises, and we’re hoping to be one of them.”
    The Penguins and Panthers matched up evenly in the regular season and split six regular season meetings, including a split of a four-game set two weeks ago at Eastwood Field.
    The Panthers enter the tournament having split a four-game series with Butler over the weekend, but they have won 13 of their 18 games in May. Over that stretch, the Panthers are batting .355 as a team.
    “They’re going to be hard-nosed just like all Milwaukee teams have been in the past,” Florak said. “They’re always tough, and they always swing the bats well. We’re going to have to play our best to come out on top.”
    Game one starter Lucas Engle has pitched well in both outings against the Panthers this season, but he lost 3-0 in Milwaukee on April 15 and did not factor in the decision at home earlier this month. In the first meeting he allowed two earned runs on eight hits in eight innings, but he lost the duel as Robert Michalkiewicz threw a nine-hit shutout. Engle also allowed three runs in 5 2/3 innings on May 11 against the Panthers.
    Engle, the reigning Horizon League Pitcher of the Week, has gone 1-1 with a 2.15 ERA in his past four starts. On Friday against Cleveland State he had what looked to be a three-hit shutout before a bad-hop single with two outs in the ninth inning led to three runs.
    “Lucas made an adjustment and has been pitching really well over the past month,” Florak said. “We challenged him, and he responded. With him on the mound we feel like we can beat anybody.”
    Michalkiewicz will be the likely starter against Engle again, and he is 1-0 with a 1.56 ERA against YSU this season. He finished the regular season 5-4 with a 3.94 ERA, and all five of those wins came in league games.
    “Michalkiewicz is a quality Division I pitcher, and he’s gotten better as the years have progressed,” Florak said. “He throws a lot of strikes, and he always seems to get the big pitch when he needs it. Everyone is going to have to have good at bats for us to have success against him.”
    The Penguins have six players batting above .300 with the league’s top hitter John Koehnlein leading the way with a .425 average. Koehnlein, who has already broken the YSU’s single season hits record by 17, extended his hitting streak to a school-record 25 games over the weekend at Cleveland State. He has hit safely in 48 of the team’s 52 games this season, and he is the only player to appear in every game.
    “Johnny has had a great year, and he’s matured on and off the field,” Florak said. “What he’s done is no surprise to me at all.”
    The game between Youngstown State and UW-Milwaukee will be preceded by a noon contest between No. 4 Cleveland State and No. 5 Butler. If YSU wins it will play the top-seeded and host UIC Flames on Thursday at 8 p.m. If the Penguins lose in the first round, they will play the loser of the Cleveland State and Butler game in an elimination round Thursday at noon. Wright State, last season’s tournament champion, is the No. 2 seed.
    Free live video webcasts of all games will be shown on the Horizon League Network through www.horizonleague.org. The site also has links to CSTV’s Gametracker for games in progress, along with complete summaries and box scores as contests are completed.