Lewiston, N.Y. - The Youngstown State baseball team dropped a 3-1 decision to Niagara on a chilly Tuesday afternoon at Bobo Field.
The defeat drops the Penguins to 15-26 overall while the Purple Eagles improve to 9-26.
The contest was scoreless until the bottom of the fourth inning when Niagara scratched out a one-out run. Nick Castellena doubled to open the inning and moved up to third on a ground out. Brady Desjardins hit a grounder to Padraig O'Shaughnessy at first base. O'Shaughnessy threw home to catcher Ian Francis, but as he spun awkwardly to make the tag, the ball fell out of his glove and Castellena was called safe.
In the top of the sixth inning, YSU tied the contest up manufacturing a run of its own. O'Shaughnessy walked to open the inning and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Lucas Nasonti. A Seth Lucero groundout moved O'Shaughnessy up to third. With two outs, Braeden O'Shaughnessy hit a ground ball to third base, but throw bounced away from first baseman Josh Marchese allowing the Penguins to tie the contest.
In the home half of the inning, Benny Serrano opened the inning with a double, but Nick Perez settled in and retired the next two batters. Reliever Kenny Misik came on to face left-handed hitting Cole O'Connor with two outs. Serrano moved up 90 feet on a steal of third and then O'Connor followed with a single just past a diving O'Shaughnessy to score the go-ahead run.
In the eighth, Niagara added an insurance run when with runners at second and third and no one out, Lucero tried to snag a short fly ball to left by Dawson Bailey, but the ball bounced off his glove allowing Castellena to score.
The Guins had the potential tying run at second base in the seventh and eighth innings, but failed to score.
Perez had a strong season-high 5.2-inning outing but was the tough-luck loser falling to 1-3 on the season. He struck out seven as five Penguin pitchers combined to strike out 11 Purple Eagles in the contest.
YSU returns to action on Friday when it opens a three-game series at Wright State.Â
