May 16, 2008 | Box  Score

Penguins Fall Short of Sweep, Must Wait for Tournament Seed

    Milwaukee, Wis. -- Milwaukee scored the winning run on back-to-back two-out doubles in the eight inning to defeat Youngstown State 9-8 on Friday afternoon at Henry Aaron Field.
    The Penguins finish the regular season with a record of 23-31 and a league mark of 13-12. They can still finish either third or fourth depending on the outcome of the Cleveland State-Butler series.
    If Cleveland State sweeps a doubleheader with Butler on Saturday, YSU would enter next week's U.S. Army Horizon League Baseball Championship as the No. 4 seed. If the Vikings lose at least once, YSU will be the No. 3 seed.
    Cleveland State defeated Butler 3-1 on Friday afternoon. UIC's 11-4 victory over Valpo allowed YSU to clinch at least fourth.
    The Penguins rallied with three runs in the seventh to tie the score at 8-8 against the Panthers, but back-to-back doubles by the No.8 and No. 9 hitters Troy Vesling and John Sarcia helped UWM avoid the sweep.
    Anthony Porter had three hits and three RBIs for YSU while Shawn Wozniak homered twice and drove in six for Milwaukee.
    Milwaukee held a 17-8 edge in the hits column, but its pitchers issued three more walks.
    Porter hit a two-out, two-run single in the first to put YSU ahead 2-0, but Wozniak singled in a run in the first and RBI hits from Sarcia and Jesse Hart in the second gave UWM a 3-2 lead.
    Eric Marzec singled and scored on an error in the fourth to tie the score, and both teams scored twice in the fifth to make the score 5-5.
    Hart and Nick Wichser singled to start the sixth for Milwaukee, and Wozniak followed with a three-run homer down the left field line to put the Panthers up 8-5.
    The first three batters reached for YSU in the seventh as Iacobucci walked, Porter singled and Marzec hit an RBI double. Porter then scored when David Leon grounded out, and Marzec scored on Anthony Munoz's safety squeeze. Reliever Ben McLarey went on to retire the next two batters, and he allowed only a walk to Iacobucci in the eighth over the final two innings.
    McClarey earned his second win of the campaign, allowing three runs on two hits and three walks in five innings.
    YSU used six different pitchers in the game - none of which threw more than 2 1/3 innings or 50 pitches - to assure no one would be overworked for the conference tournament. Matt Tucker was charged with the loss, allowing the winning run on three hits in the eighth.