The Youngstown State baseball team posted 15 hits while limiting Pitt to just four in a 9-4 victory on Monday evening at Charles L. Cost Field in Pittsburgh, Pa.
After falling behind 2-0 after the first inning, the Penguins answered with four runs in the fourth, three in the fifth and two in the seventh to take a 9-2 lead. The Panthers plated a pair of runs in the home half of the seventh to account for the final margin.
YSU improves to 7-24 overall while Pitt falls to 14-16. The Penguins picked up their third straight win at Charles L. Cost Field and their fifth win over the Panthers in the last eight meetings. YSU now has a win over Pitt in each of the last four seasons that the teams have played. The Guins earned their third win over a Power Five opponent this season and their fifth in the last two campaigns.
Padraig O'Shaughnessy went 2-for-5 with a two-run home run and two runs scored to lead the Penguins offensively. Matt Thompson went 3-for-5 with a double and two runs scored while Trey Law was 2-for-5 with a double and a career-high four RBIs. Freshman Clay Wiesen hit the first home run of his career, drove in two runs and scored three times. All nine Penguins who appeared at the plate recorded at least one hit in the contest.
YSU starter Braden Gebhardt allowed two runs on two hits with three strikeouts over three innings of work. Patrick Gumto earned the victory after permitting just two hits and striking out three batters over a season-high three innings of scoreless relief. Gumto retired the first six batters he faced after coming out of the bullpen. Chase Franken was responsible for two runs on four walks in two thirds of an inning. He induced a key double play with the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh to help get out of a jam.
Casey Marshalwitz came on to strikeout a career-high six batters over a career-high 2.1 scoreless innings of relief to seal the victory. The senior right-hander, who entered with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the seventh, issued a bases-loaded walk to the first batter he faced. Marshalwitz then got a key strikeout of CJ Funk to end the seventh. The Gibsonia, Pa., native would proceed to retire the side in order in the eighth and ninth innings while striking out the final five hitters he faced.
The Panthers took an early lead with two runs on two hits in the bottom of the first inning. Sky Duff was hit by a pitch, advanced to second when Jack Anderson drew a walk and scored on a two-out RBI single by Kyle Hess. Funk followed with an RBI double that plated Anderson to give Pitt a 2-0 edge.
The Penguins responded by scoring four runs on four hits in the top of the fourth inning. Steven D'Eusanio drew a leadoff walk and Padraig O'Shaughnessy followed with a two-run home run to right field that evened the score. Later in the frame, Law delivered a two-out, two-run double to left field that gave YSU a 4-2 lead.
Youngstown State increased its advantage with three runs on three hits in the top of the fifth inning. D'Eusanio hit a leadoff double and Padraig O'Shaughnessy followed with an RBI double to left field. Law came through with a two-out, two-run single to center later in the inning to give the Penguins a 7-2 edge.
The Penguins pushed their lead to 9-2 in the top of the seventh when Thompson hit a leadoff double and Wiesen followed two batters later with a two-run blast to left center.
Pitt struck for two runs in the home half of the seventh to draw within 9-4. Johnny Long III was hit by a pitch and came around to score when Jayden Melendez hit into a double play. Hess drew a bases-loaded walk later in the frame to cut YSU's lead to five runs.
Pitt starter Jonathan Bautista suffered the loss after allowing four runs, two of them earned on five hits over 3.1 innings.
Hess went 2-for-3 with two RBIs to pace the Panthers offensively.
The Penguins will return home to Eastwood Field on Tuesday for a non-conference contest against Toledo at 5 p.m. The game will be broadcast live on YSNLive.com.
