The Youngstown State baseball team opens its 55th season with a three-game series at defending NCAA College World Series runner-up Georgia this weekend. Game one of the set is set for 5 p.m. Friday at Foley Field in Athens, Ga.
    The Penguins enter the season with as many newcomers on the team as returners with an even 15-15 split. Game one starter Aaron Swenson is the reigning Horizon League Pitcher of the Year, and outfielders Eric Marzec and Joe Iacobucci were second-team all-league picks a year ago.
    Six position starters return, and three JUCO transfers are expected to take over at first base, shortstop and centerfield. Swenson and Corey Vukovic are the only two returning pitchers who threw more than 25 innings last season, and sophomores Cody Dearth and Phil Klein are expected to start games two and three.
    The Penguins finished 23-33 overall and 13-12 in the Horizon League in head coach Rich Pasquale's first season. The Guins' third-place finish in the standings help Pasquale earn co-coach-of-the-year honors.
    YSU beat Georgia 4-3 on March 26, 1987, in the only previous meetings between the two teams.

Right Off the Bat

• YSU is one win shy of its 1,000th in school history.
• The Penguins were swept in three game series at Georgia Tech and Alabama last season.
• YSU's last victory over a ranked opponent was a doubleheader sweep of No. 29 Oral Roberts on April 18, 1999.YSU's last ranked opponent was No. 25 Georgia Tech in the first weekend of last season.
• YSU has two wins over SEC teams in school history - Georgia in 1987 and Kentucky in 1988.
• The Guins play 24 of their first 25 games on the road.

Many Newcomers on Roster

    The 2009 Penguins are comprised of as many returning players as newcomers. Only 15 of the 30 players on the roster appeared in a game last season. One player (Travis Brown) redshirted, and there are 14 players in their first season at YSU. Five of the newcomers (Greg Dissinger, Jacke Healey, Casey Holland, Eric Hymel and Trent Wood) are JUCO transfers, eight are freshmen and one is a sophomore walk-on.

Swenson in Good Company as League's Top Pitcher
    Aaron Swenson joined two former YSU pitchers with impressive résumés when he was named the Horizon League Pitcher of the Year last season. Swenson became the third player in school history to be named the conference pitcher of the year, joining Brad Hennessey and Justin Thomas. Hennessey was the No. 21 pick in the Major League Baseball draft in 2001 and played five seasons with the San Francisco Giants. He is currently a non-roster invite with the Baltimore Orioles. Thomas, a fourth-round pick of the Mariners in 2005, made his MLB debut last September.

Penguins looking for program's 1,000th win
    The Penguins enter the 2009 season needing just one win to reach 1,000 in its 55th season as a program. Just under half of the victories came with Dom Rosselli at the helm from 1948 to 1985. The first coach in school history accumulated 489 wins in 31 seasons before retiring. The Penguins first competed at the Division I level in 1982 and have won 582 games since then. The most wins for a season came in 1995 when coach Dan Kubacki led the squad to 37 victories.

Lone-Senior Koehnlein Hopes to Build on Strong Finish to 2008
    Senior John Koehnlein finally began to return to form toward the end of the 2008 campaign after a season of misfortune. Koehnlein, who was a preseason Wallace Award candidate after batting .434 as a sophomore, hit .419 over his last nine games to boost his final average to .288. Entering the 2008 season on a 29-game hitting streak, he went 1-for-12 at Georgia Tech to start the year, then missed almost a month with a broken bone in his hand. He then played sparingly while nursing an injured wrist before his late-season comeback.

Game-Two Starter Tucker A Late, Pleasant Add
    Probable game-two starter Matt Tucker received some good news Thursday morning, hours after the Penguins had already departed for Georgia. Tucker's eligibility petition to the NCAA was approved after being in doubt since the summer. A 6-foot-7 sophomore lefty who is projected to be a weekend starter this season, he left for Athens on Thursday afternoon with his parents. His lone start as a freshman came at Penn State when he held the Nittany Lions to one run in eight innings.

Young Arms to Play Big Role
    With the loss of five seniors and two juniors from last season's pitching staff, the 2009 Penguins will have some young arms take the hill this year. Of the returning hurlers, only Aaron Swenson and Corey Vukovic threw more than 25 innings last year. As a unit, the returning group threw 49.3 percent of the innings last year, but Swenson threw 99 of those 244.1 frames. Vukovic threw 58 of the remaining 145.1. Sophomores Matt Tucker (23 innings), Cody Dearth (22.1 innings) and Phil Klein (18.2 innings) are all expected to throw major innings this season.

Horizon League Coaches Pick Penguins to Finish Fourth
    YSU has been picked to finish fourth in the 2009 Horizon League standings in a preseason poll of the league's coaches. Rivals.com and Collegiate Baseball both picked predicted the Penguins to finish third, and Baseball America joined the Horizon League coaches in projecting a fourthh-place finish. Defending champion UIC and Wright State have been the consensus picks to finish first and second. Milwaukee was picked third by the coaches and Baseball America.

Four Juniors Named Team Captains
    Juniors Tom Clayton, C.J. Morris, Anthony Porter and Aaron Swenson have been named YSU's team captains of the 2009 season. Each of the players are in the capacity for the first time in their careers.

Offense Much Improved in Last Season's Final two Months
    Youngstown State was an entirely different team at the plate once the 2008 calender turned to April. Entering the month, YSU was batting .244, had five home runs and were averaging 3.4 runs in 20 games. In April and May, the Penguins batted .316, had 24 home runs and averaged 6.8 runs over their final 36 games. Eight different players hit above .300 after April 1, including returners Joe Iacobucci (.406), Eric Marzec (.348), Anthony Porter (.344), Tom Clayton (.327) and John Koehnlein (.314).

Picking Up Pace on the Bases
    Youngstown State swiped 67 bases last season, which was 30 more than it did in 2007. That total was also the most since the Penguins stole 79 bases in 2001, and it also the best success rate for steals since 2001 (72 percent). Fifty-five of the steals came in the final 36 games since April 1. The Penguins were 19-16 when they stole at least one base last season and and 4-17 when they did not.

Munoz Makes Move to the Mound
    Junior Anthony Munoz has moved from a utility role in the infield to a frontrunner for the Penguins' closer spot. Munoz, who has not taken the mound in either of his first two seasons, has played in 86 games. He started 22 contests last season at first base and 43 as a freshman at shortstop and second base. Munoz is a career .240 hitter.

Clutch-Hitter Clayton Returns From MCL Injury
    Junior outfielder Tom Clayton was a major player off the bench toward the end of last season before a torn MCL forced him to miss the remainder of the year. He was 8-for-19 with seven RBIs and seven runs scored in 17 games as a substitute. As a pinch hitter he was hitting .438 with four RBIs and two home runs. Both of his pinch-hit homers came in the ninth inning, including one on April 20 against Milwaukee that sent the game to extra innings. Clayton batted .308 with four home runs and 20 doubles as a freshman to earn honorable mention honors on the All-Ping! Freshman Team.

A Team of Diverse Backgrounds
    In a program that has historically only featured players from Ohio and a small few from Pennsylvania, players from this year's squad are from eight different states. Nineteen are from Ohio, five are from Pennsylvania, and one player is from Arizona, Louisiana, Maryland, New Jersey, Virginia and Wisconsin.