May 25, 2007

Bats Finally Cool Off as Luczak's Shutout Eliminates YSU

    Chicago -- UW-Milwaukee's Dan Luczak threw an eight-hit shutout and got help from three inning-ending double plays as the Panthers beat Youngstown State 9-0 in an elimination game in the Horizon League Championship.
    The Penguins' two wins in the tournament is the second-most in school history behind only the four-straight victories that led to the league crown in 2004.
    YSU finishes the year with a mark of 19-37 while UW-Milwaukee will play the the loser of Friday evening's winner's bracket final between UIC and Wright State.
    Coming off of a game in which they scored 15 runs on 16 hits against Cleveland State earlier in the day, the Penguins couldn't put a string of hits together against Luczak and ended up stranding 10 runners.
    Luczak, a 6-6 junior right-hander, threw 127 pitches, walked four and struck out one to improve to 4-7.
    "We gave it all we had today," head coach Mike Florak said. "In the beginning we came out ready to play, and it was just a long battle. We never gave up; we just ran into a guy that pitched really, really well."

    The Panthers got two runs on a hit and an error in the second, and Jesse Hart's solo homer led off a two-run third that made the score 4-0.
    UW-Milwaukee scored a run in each of the fourth and fifth innings, and Luczak worked out of jams to keep the lead intact.
    "He had a different arm angle being a big, tall guy," Florak said of Luczak. "It was a different look, and we hit some balls sharply that didn't fall. The wind also swallowed a few balls up instead of helping us out like the past few days."

    The Penguins loaded the bases with one out in the top of the fifth when Brent Parks walked and Anthony Munoz and John Koehnlein singled. Luczak then induced an inning-ending double play to end the fifth and another in the sixth with runners on first and second.
    UW-Milwaukee upped its lead to 7-0 with a run in the seventh, and the Panthers rolled a pair again to stave off YSU's final threat in the eighth. UWM added two more runs in the bottom of the eighth for the final tally.
    Koehnlein and Erich Diedrich finished with two hits apiece, and Parks, a four-year mainstay in the outfield, singled in his final game.
    Hart finished 3-for-4 with two runs scored, and Josh Groves and Grant Berkovitz finished with two hits apiece.
    YSU starter Corey Vukovic allowed five runs on six hits in 3 1/3 innings in a losing effort.
    Vukovic was the first YSU freshman to start in the conference tournament since Corey Ohalek took the mound in the 1999 Mid-Continent Conference Tournament. He was one of 11 players in today's lineup who played in the Horizon League Championship for the first time in their careers in the past three days.
    "These guys will have tournament experience," Florak said. They'll figure out what it takes to keep plugging away and not give up any at bats. We have to keep going forward and keep fighting."