Pittsburgh -- The Youngstown State baseball team saw a 4-0 lead slip away as Pittsburgh scored six of its seven runs in the fourth inning to win 7-4 in a five-inning, rain-shortened contest on Wednesday afternoon.
     YSU jumped ahead with four runs on six hits in the first inning, but Pitt scored once in the second and six times in the fourth. Four of those runs came after an unfriendly bounce on a play at the plate that would have ended the inning with YSU ahead 4-3.
     Jacke Healey drove in two runs in the first inning and started a run of four straight two-out hits. Anthony Porter had two hits, scored and drove in a run.
     Cory Brownsten went 3-for-3 with two RBIs for Pitt.
     After the Penguins chased Pitt starter Kevin Dooley with the ninth man batting in the first, reliever Josh Smith came in to threw 4.1 scoreless innings. He allowed two hits, but never more than one in an inning, and struck out six to earn his first win.
     YSU starter Matt Tucker worked around two hits and five walks in the first three innings with the help of Porter throwing out two would-be base stealers. Tucker, though allowed six runs on six hits when 11 Panthers batted in the fourth.
     After three hits and a hit batsman to start the fourth, Pitt had two runs in and still had runners on first and second with nobody out. Manoli Pahoulis laid down a sacrifice bunt to advance the runners and set up a play that changed the game.
     Chris Sedon flew out to Eric Marzec in right, and Brownsten tagged on the catch to try and score the tying run. Marzec threw a strike to Porter that beat Brownsten, but the ball took an irregular hop on Porter off the astroturf and bounced away. Brownsten was safe, and the Panthers went on to score three more runs to go up 7-4.
     The first two runners reached for YSU in the top of the fifth, but Smith escaped with a fielder's choice and two strikeouts.
     Ryan Messmer came on in the bottom of the fifth to throw a scoreless inning for YSU in what ended up being the final half at bat. The Penguins batted in a scoreless the top of the sixth, but that inning was wiped away when the game was called.
     The Penguins will play a three game series at UIC on Friday and Saturday.