April 12, 2008 | Game One Box | Game Two Box

Doubleheader Split Gives Penguins Series Win Over League-Leading UIC

    Niles, Ohio -- Redshirt freshman Joe Iacobucci hit a two-run homer, and Youngstown State got six strong innings from Corey Vukovic to defeat UIC 4-3 in game one of Saturday's doubleheader.
    The Penguins also defeated the Flames 6-5 on Friday evening to win the three-game series. UIC rallied from a 4-1 deficit in game two to win 9-5 and avoid the sweep.
    Iacobucci also scored the eventual game-winning run in game one for YSU, which got its runs on the two-run home run and two sacrifice flies. The Penguins also did not commit and error and got a notable effort from C.J. Morris and Sean Lucas, who combined for 10 assists.
    The Penguins jumped out to a 3-0 lead after two innings on UIC starter Mike Kool. Sean Lucas hit a one-out triple down the right field line in the first and scored on the next pitch when Erich Diedrich hit a sacrifice fly to center.
    Eric Marzec hit a one-out single to center in the second, and Iacobucci followed by clearing the wall in right for his second home run of the season.
    Vukovic retired the first eight batters he faced, and UIC got only two runners in scoring position through the first five innings.
    The Flames finally got on the board in the sixth when Jake Carr and Kevin Coddington doubled.
    Vukovic exited after walking Andy Leonard to start the seventh, and Steve McGuiggan eventually drove him in with a sacrifice fly to cut the lead to 3-2.
    Iacobucci then provided some insurance in the seventh as the Penguins manufactured a run to take a 4-2 lead. He led off the inning with a single to left and moved to third on Anthony Munoz's sacrifice bunt and a wild pitch. Josh Page then plated the run on a sacrifice fly to right.
    UIC climbed within one in the eighth when Tony Altavilla singled in Jake Carr off of Marzec. The Flames had the tying runner in scoring position in both the eighth and ninth, but couldn't come through as Marzec earned his second save.
    Vukovic was charged with two runs on five hits and struck out one in six innings to win his second consecutive start. Kool went the entire way for the Flames, allowing all four runs on five hits and four walks to drop to 3-3.
    McGuiggan hit a leadoff double in the first inning of game two and scored on Carr's sacrifice fly to put the Flames up 1-0. But the Penguins received an early lift when Anthony Porter's three-run double in the first put them up 3-1. Porter then scored on Iacobucci's single in the fourth to give YSU a 4-1 advantage.
    The Flames got an unearned run in the sixth, and they took advantage of two errors in the seventh with six runs to go up 8-4. Rafael Garcia drew a full-count walk off of Aaron Swenson to start the inning, and McGuiggan beat out a chopper to third on a bang-bang play at first to put runners at first and second. Ty Rubio then hit a potential double-play ball to short, but Morris threw wide of second to allow both runs to score. Carr broke the tie with an RBI single, and the Flames tacked on three more on a bases loaded hit batsman, an infield single and a squeeze.
    UIC added a run in the eighth, and Jason Reitenbach scored on an error for YSU in the bottom half of the eighth for the final tally.
    Grant Kohlstaedt allowed four runs on six hits in 6.2 innings to earn his fourth win of the season. Swenson allowed five runs, three of which were earned, on six hits in 6.1 innings in the no decision. The loss went to Phil Klein, who allowed a base hit and two walks in the seventh.
    YSU has two upcoming midweek games before back-to-back Horizon League doubleheaders on the weekend. The Penguins will play Niagara on Tuesday at 3 p.m. at Cene Park and Ohio at 3 p.m. Wednesday at Eastwood Field. They will then play two games Saturday against Butler and two Sunday against Milwaukee.