Five Youngstown State pitchers combined to hold Bowling Green to four hits in a 5-1 victory on a sunny Tuesday evening at Eastwood Field.
The Penguins won their eighth straight decision to extend their longest winning streak since the 2005 season, and YSU improved its season record to 15-32. Bowling Green's record is now 16-28.
Youngstown State scored at least eight runs in each of the first seven games of its winning streak, and it needed only two to beat the Falcons. The Penguins issued just a two-out single in the first, a one-out single in the fifth and a pair of singles in the ninth. That was a big turnaround from when Bowling Green scored 18 runs on 14 hits when the teams played on March 22 at Steller Field.
Kenny Misik earned his third victory of the season while pitching the first 2.2 innings, and he was followed by Zach Stayduhar, Patrick Gumto, Nick Perez, and Casey Marshalwitz. Perez had the longest outing for the home team as he held the Falcons without a hit over the sixth, seventh and eighth innings.
Trey Law recorded three of YSU's nine hits from the leadoff spot in the lineup, and Braeden O'Shaughnessy followed him by going 2-for-3 in the second slot. They hit back-to-back singles to start the bottom of the first, and they each crossed the plate to give the Penguins a 2-0 lead. That ended up being enough of an advantage for the duration of the contest. After O'Shaughnessy advanced on the throw to third to put runners on second and third. Law scored on Padraig O'Shaughnessy's ground out, and the younger O'Shaughnessy scored on a sacrifice fly by Steven D'Eusanio.
Bowling Green's only run came without recording a hit in the third as DJ Newman drew a one-out walk and advanced the final three bases on a walk, hit batter and another walk.
The margin remained 2-1 until Youngstown State scored a run in the fifth, and the Penguins added single tallies in the sixth and seventh innings.
In the fifth, Ian Francis hit a leadoff single to left, stayed out of a double play on a hit-and-run, and scored on a two-out double to right by Braeden O'Shaughnessy. Turner Grau then doubled and scored on Andre Good's single in the sixth to make the score 4-1, and Law singled and scored on Padraig O'Shaughnessy's sacrifice fly in the seventh.
Newman was charged with two runs on four hits in four innings in the losing effort for Bowling Green, which also used five pitchers. YSU scored on the first four Falcons to take the mound.
Youngstown State will try to stay hot as it travels to Northern Kentucky for a three-game Horizon League set this weekend. The series opener will be on Friday at 2 p.m., and the teams will also play at 1 p.m. on Saturday and noon on Sunday.
