Niles, Ohio -- Phil Klein and Eric Marzec combined on a five-hit shutout, and catcher Jonathan Crist tagged two runners out at the plate in the seventh inning as the Youngstown State baseball team defeated Cleveland State 1-0 on Easter Sunday at Eastwood Field.
     Klein allowed all five hits and struck out a career-high eight batters in seven innings before Marzec retired all six hitters he faced to earn the save. YSU's run came on an RBI ground out by C.J. Morris in the second inning.
     With the win in the rubber match, YSU won two out of three games this weekend against Cleveland State. The Penguins have won five of their last six games to improve to 6-6 in Horizon League play. Four of their six losses have been by one run in their opponents' last at bat.
     Brian Long went the distance for Cleveland State, allowing one run on six hits without walking a batter in a losing effort. Two of the hits he allowed came to start the second inning.
     Joe Iacobucci led off with a double down the right field line, and Derek Carr followed with a single up the middle to put runners at the corners. After Long got Jeremy Banks to hit into an infield pop out, Morris hit a hopper to second to bring in Iacobucci for the game's only run.
     Long allowed a hit in each of his last four innings, but he let two runners reach only in the second and fifth.
     Cleveland State stranded a runner on second base in each of the first two innings and left seven on total, but five of those came in the first four innings.
     Klein had all eight of his strikeouts in the first 5.1 innings, and he did not allow a hit in the fourth through sixth.
     Alex Johnson ended the drought in the seventh when he doubled inside the third base bag to lead off the inning, and he went to third on Jon Foco's ground out. Klein narrowly missed on three straight pitches to walk Kyle Shaffer and put runners on the corners, but YSU escaped with some dramatic defensive plays.
     Josh Federico laid down a safety squeeze bunt in front of the mound that Klein picked up and tossed to Crist, who blocked the plate and tagged out a diving Johnson. On the next play, with runners on first and second, Brad Buell hit a bouncer up the middle that David Leon was able to knock down behind second base. Shaffer never stopped running from second, and Crist was able to get him on a swipe tag on Leon's throw for the second consecutive out at the plate.
     Marzec did not allow a ball to leave the infield in his two innings of work. He had two infield ground outs, three strikeouts and a pop up to Morris at third to end the game.
     The Penguins will midweek games at Kent State and against Duquesne prior to a three-game series with Milwaukee. The Panthers have also won five of their last six Horizon League games.