May 4, 2007

YSU Begins Three-Game Set With League-Leading UIC Friday

    Youngstown -- Youngstown State will open up a three-game Horizon League series Friday evening against the first-place UIC Flames at Eastwood Field at 7 p.m.
    The Penguins will be looking for redemption from three one-run losses at UIC earlier in the year. Two of those losses came when UIC scored a run in the bottom of the ninth inning.
    In game one of the series in Chicago on March 30, the Penguins committed five errors, including one one the final play of the game, in a 5-4 loss. Lucas Engle, who will start game one of the series Friday evening, allowed only one earned run on nine hits and struck out five in eight innings of work.
    If Friday's game wasn't a heartbreaker, the Flames won the first game Saturday on a one-out suicide squeeze in the bottom of the ninth. Adam Kalafos held UIC to six hits and struck out seven, but two of those hits came in the ninth prior to the squeeze. YSU went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position in the game and had a runner on third with less than two outs in three innings. UIC took an early 5-2 lead and held on to win the nightcap 5-4 on Saturday.
    Although YSU has struggled when playing in Chicago, the Penguins have won six of the last eight contests against UIC at Eastwood Field. The Penguins took two out of three at home last season and won four out of five in 2004, including the winner's bracket final in the Horizon League Championships.
    After Friday's opener that puts Engle against Zach Peterson, the teams will play a doubleheader Saturday starting at 1 p.m. YSU's Adam Kalafos will go against Steve Crnkovich in game one, and Aaron Sellman will pitch against Ryan Zink in the finale.

Not Far Out of the Race
    Although YSU currently sits in sixth place, the Penguins are just three games out of third in the Horizon League standings with 11 games remaining. After this weekend's three-game set, YSU will play two four-game series against UW-Milwaukee and Cleveland State.

Among the League's Top Hitters
    As a team, YSU ranks second in the Horizon League in batting with a .286 clip thanks to three players ranking among the league's top 11 hitters. John Koehnlein is hitting a Horizon League-best .422, Erich Diedrich is tied for seventh with a .356 mark, and Josh Page's .336 clip is good enough for 10th.
    Koehnlein also leads the circuit in Horizon League games with a .434 average, and Page ranks ninth with a .358 mark. Diedrich is hitting .342 to rank 13th.

On the National Level
    Koehnlein ranked 33rd in Division I in hitting at the start of the week with a .411 average. Entering the weekend with UIC, Koehnlein is hitting .422 after going 4-for-5 against Notre Dame College on Wednesday.
    Koehnlein and Sean Lucas also ranked among the top 20 players to strike out in the country. Koehnlein ranked 14th with one strikeout every 18.7 at bats and Lucas was 17 with one strikeout every 18.1 at bats.
    Andy Svitak also ranks 53rd in the nation in saves with seven.