The Youngstown State baseball team built a 9-3 lead and survived another comeback attempt to beat Wright State 9-8 in the regular-season finale on Saturday at Eastwood Field.
The Penguins celebrated their 10 seniors before the contest, and they'll send them into next week's Horizon League Baseball Championship as winners of 12 of their last 15 games. YSU will be the fourth seed in the tournament and will take on Milwaukee on Wednesday at noon at Wright State's Nischwitz Stadium in Dayton.
Youngstown State improved to 19-35 overall, and it finished the conference portion of its schedule with a 13-16 mark. That's quite the improvement from when the Penguins sat at 7-32 overall and 3-14 in league play after being swept at Oakland on April 21. From that point, YSU won its final four weekend series of the season.
Wright State finished the regular season with a 35-20 record and a 22-8 mark against the conference. The Raiders won the regular-season crown and will serve as the tournament host.
Oakland will be the second seed and will join Wright State with a bye into the double-elimination portion of the tournament. Northern Kentucky will be the third seed and will take on Purdue Fort Wayne in the opening round.
Sixth-year senior Padraig O'Shaughnessy had a pair of hits and drove in four runs, and true senior Trey Law hit his first career homer, drove in three runs and scored three times. Senior Turner Grau and Ian Francis also had two hits.
On the mound, freshman Cam Marshalwitz threw a career-high seven innings to earn his third victory of the season. Wright State had the go-ahead run at the plate in the eighth and ninth, but Casey Marshalwitz recorded the final four outs of the game to earn his sixth save.
Wright State committed an error in each of the first two innings, and those miscues led to five Penguins runs.
The Penguins struck initially with a run in the first inning to take a 1-0 lead. After Law drew a leadoff walk, he scored two batters later when Padraig O'Shaughnessy battled through a 12-pitch at bat to serve an RBI single into right field.
The Raiders loaded the bases with no outs on an infield single, a walk and a hit batter, and two of the runners came in to score. Patrick Fultz, who hit the infield single, scored the first run on a sacrifice fly by Luke Arnold, and Boston Smith scored on Carson Clark's RBI single up the middle.
That ended up being Wright State's only lead of the game as the Penguins scored four unearned runs in the bottom of the second. Eli Brown was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to bring in the first run, and Law's sacrifice fly plated another to give YSU a 3-2 advantage. Two batters later, Padraig O'Shaughnessy singled to right to bring in Francis and Brown and extend the lead to 5-2.
A bad hop on a hard grounder turned into a leadoff triple for Smith in the top of the fourth, and Julian Greenwell's sacrifice fly brought the Raiders to within a pair of runs at 5-3.
YSU countered with a pair of two-out tallies in the bottom of the inning to go up 7-3. Francis led off with a single, and the Penguins loaded the bases with one out when Law walked and Braeden O'Shaughnessy was hit by a pitch. Tristan Haught came out of the bullpen to induce Padraig O'Shaughnessy into an RBI ground out that scored Brown, and another run came in when Law scored on Steven D'Eusanio's infield single. Braeden O'Shaughnessy tried to score from second on the play, and he was thrown out at the plate to end the inning.
The Penguins extended their lead to 9-3 in the bottom of the sixth when Law hit his first career home run to the right-field bullpen. Francis led off the inning with a walk, and he scored on Law's blast two batters later as the Penguins took a six-run lead.
Wright State shaved a run off the deficit when Arnold hit a leadoff single and scored on a sacrifice fly by Jay Luikart, and the Raiders added two runs in the eighth to make it 9-6.
Sammy Sass led off with a single through the right side with the infield shifted to the left, and that was Wright State's only hit in its two-run inning. Kenny Misik struck out two of the next three hitters, but a walk in between was the first of three free passes in the inning. Sass scored on a wild pitch for the first run, and a hit batter reloaded the bases. Casey Marshalwitz walked Andrew Patrick to force in another run and bring the go-ahead run to the plate, and Law made a nice play on a grounder up the middle to end the inning.
A double and a single to start the top of the ninth immediately put the tying run at the plate for Wright State, but Casey Marshalwitz was able to battle through the threat. He struck out Fultz for the first out, and he walked Smith to load the bases and bring the go-ahead run to the plate. Arnold singled to left to plate two runs, and Clark grounded out to second to end the game.
Wright State starter Luke Stofel allowed seven runs, two of which were earned on five hits, two walks and three hit batters in 3.1 innings.
The Penguins will begin postseason play on Wednesday when they face Milwaukee in the opening round of the 2023 Horizon League Baseball Championship at Nischwitz Stadium in Dayton, Ohio. All games of the league championship will be broadcast live on ESPN+.
