The Youngstown State baseball team dropped a pair of games to Horizon League-leading Wright State on Sunday at Eastwood Field in a conference doubleheader.
The Raiders took game one 3-1 with three unearned runs in the fifth innings, and Wright State scored five runs with two outs in the seventh inning of game two on its way to a 9-6 victory.
Youngstown State had three hits in game one, and the Penguins held an 11-10 edge in the hits column in game two. Dominick Bucko led Youngstown State in the second contest with three hits while Lucas Nasonti, Steven D'Eusanio and Dylan Swarmer each had two hits.
Game One
In game one, Wright State scored three unearned runs in the top of the fifth inning to win 3-1 and spoil an outstanding start by YSU's Matt Brosky. Brosky surrendered just three hits and did not walk a batter over seven innings in the hard-luck loss.
The Penguins were only able to back their starter with three hits of their own off of three Wright State hurlers.
Youngstown State scored the first run of the afternoon in the bottom of the third as Bucko drew a two-out walk and came around to score when Braeden O'Shaughnessy doubled to left-center on an 0-2 pitch. The Penguins held that 1-0 lead until the fifth when Wright State's Julian Greenwell made YSU pay for a two-out error that extended the inning with a three-run triple that accounted for the only other runs of the game.
The Penguins had runners in scoring position in the fifth and sixth innings but couldn't close the gap. Nasonti hit a two-out double in the fifth, and Andre Good and Padraig O'Shaughnessy drew back-to-back two-out walks in the sixth.
Wright State starter Alex Theis allowed the only earned run of the game on three hits and four walks over 5.2 innings, and Logan Tabeling came in out of the bullpen to get the final out of the sixth after the walks to Good and Padraig O'Shaughnessy. Closer Jay Luikart struck out the Penguins in order in the seventh to record his sixth save.
Game Two
Wright State took a quick 4-0 lead in game two by scoring two earned runs and two unearned runs in the top of the first.
Two singles and a walk loaded the bases with one out, and Zane Harris served a two-run single to left that scored Alec Sayre and Luikart. With runners on first and second, Harris and Gehrig Anglin executed a double steal, and Anglin took an extra 90 feet on a throwing error to put the Raiders up 3-0. Harris later scored on a two-out fielding error to make it 4-0.
Those were the only four runs of the game that YSU starter Chad Coles allowed in his six innings of work, which gave the Penguins an opportunity to cut into the lead. Bucko led off the bottom of the fifth with a single, and D'Eusanio hit a two-run home run two batters later to make the score 4-2. It was D'Eusanio's seventh home run of the season, which moved him into a tie for the team lead.
Coles held the deficit at two through the sixth inning, but the Raiders scored five runs with two outs off of YSU's bullpen in the seventh to go up 9-2. Luikart hit a leadoff double, but Casey Marshalwitz retired the next two batters and had Luikart on third with two outs. Wright State followed with three straight hits to remove Marshalwitz from the game, and Jon Snyder walked three batters before handing the baton to Travis Perry. Perry allowed an RBI single to Luikart on his second at-bat of the inning, and Bucko threw out Greenwell at the plate to save another run from scoring.
Down 9-2, Youngstown State kept battling over its final nine outs and eventually got the tying run to the plate in the ninth inning before falling.
Nasonti and Bucko hit back-to-back singles to start the bottom of the seventh, and a double steal with one out put both of them in scoring position. D'Eusanio followed with a single to right that plated Nasonti to make the score 9-3, but Bucko was thrown out trying to score from second.
The Penguins got another run in the bottom of the eighth when Swarmer hit a one-out triple and scored on Turner Grau's RBI ground out. It was Swarmer's first triple of the season and Grau's first RBI. Grau made his long-awaited season debut on Sunday after missing the first 44 games of the campaign with an injury.
In the ninth, Nasonti hit a leadoff double and scored one pitch later on Bucko's RBI single up the middle that made the score 9-5. After a pitching change, Braeden O'Shaughnessy hit Donnie Nicodemus' first offering to left for a double that moved Bucko to third. D'Eusanio followed with a sacrifice fly to score Bucko and make it 9-6, and Padraig O'Shaughnessy reached on an infield single with two outs to put runners at the corners. Nicodemus was able to strike out Swarmer to preserve the game.
Youngstown State will play four Horizon League road contests next week with a pair of doubleheaders. The Penguins will play a twinbill at UIC on Friday, and they'll travel for two games at Northern Kentucky on Sunday.
