Penguins Face Golden Grizzlies in Three-Game Horizon League Series

The Youngstown State baseball team (2-17, 1-2 Horizon League) will open a three-game Horizon League series against Oakland (7-13, 0-3 Horizon League) on Friday at 3 p.m. at Eastwood Field. The Penguins and Golden Grizzlies will proceed to play on Saturday at 7 p.m. before closing the series on Sunday at 1 p.m.

Live audio for all three games will be available at YSNLive.com while live stats will be available through links on YSUsports.com. Fans can also follow @YSUBaseball on X for live updates.

Youngstown State vs. Oakland

Date	Location	Audio	Live Stats
Friday March 22 \| 3 PM ET	Eastwood Field Niles, Ohio	YSNLive.com	Live Stats
Saturday March 23 \| 7 PM ET	Eastwood Field Niles, Ohio	YSNLive.com	Live Stats
Sunday March 24 \| 1 PM ET	Eastwood Field Niles, Ohio	YSNLive.com	Live Stats

Weekend Preview

Junior right-hander Jacob Gehring will take the ball in the series opener on Friday while sophomore left-hander Sloan Ulrich is slated to start game two on Saturday. Junior right-hander Brandon Mikos is set to make his first start of the season in the series finale on Sunday.
Youngstown State dropped two of three games to Purdue Fort Wayne in its first Horizon League series of 2024 this past weekend at Eastwood Field. The Penguins won their home and Horizon League opener 4-2 on Friday before falling 13-3 on Saturday and 18-5 on Sunday.
Junior right-hander Jacob Gehring posted new career highs with eight innings pitched and six strikeouts to earn the win and lead YSU to a 4-2 home-opening victory over Purdue Fort Wayne on Friday at Eastwood Field. The Canfield, Ohio, native limited the Mastodons to just two runs on four hits while retiring eight straight batters on two different occasions.
Youngstown State earned its first victory of the 2024 season on March 13 with a 7-6 triumph in 10 innings at Pitt. The Penguins picked up their fourth straight win over the Panthers in Pittsburgh and their sixth win in the last nine meetings overall. YSU also earned its sixth win over a Power Five opponent in the last three seasons and its 10th such victory during Dan Bertolini's tenure as head coach.
Redshirt senior shortstop Trey Law is batting .328 while leading the Penguins with 23 hits, 14 runs scored and a .420 on-base percentage. The Camp Hill, Pa., native matched his career high with four hits in YSU's win at Pitt on March 13 by going 4-for-5 with four runs scored. Freshman outfielder Derrick Tarpley Jr. is batting .328 and slugging .517 with 19 hits including two home runs and 11 RBIs over 16 games played. The Brownsville, Pa., native went 3-for-6 with an RBI single in YSU's win at Pitt on March 13.
Freshman outfielder Alejandro Covas is batting .308 while leading YSU and ranking tied for third in the Horizon League with eight stolen bases. The Peninsula, Ohio, native set a new career high with three hits in Sunday's series finale with Purdue Fort Wayne. Covas went 3-for-4 and tied the single-game school record with two triples to become the 11th player in program history and the first since 2021 to triple twice in a game.

Previewing Oakland

A Win on Friday Would...

Give YSU its third victory of the 2024 season.
Snap a two-game losing streak.
Snap a five-game losing streak vs. Oakland.
Improve YSU's record at Eastwood Field to 2-2.
Be the 357th in head coach Dan Bertolini's career and his 128th at Youngstown State.

Scouting The Golden Grizzlies

Oakland owns an 7-13 overall record and a 0-3 mark in Horizon League play after an 11-8 non-conference victory at Central Michigan on Tuesday. The Golden Grizzlies were swept in a three-game Horizon League series at Northern Kentucky this past weekend.
Redshirt freshman Lucas Day is batting .404 and slugging .772 with a team-high five home runs and 17 RBIs. Senior outfielder Ian Cleary is batting .338 with 15 RBIs while freshman outfielder Trent Rice is batting .300 and leading the Horizon League with 19 stolen bases.
Senior right-hander Brandon Decker owns a 1-2 record and a 7.53 ERA while leading Oakland with 20 strikeouts and 28.2 innings pitched over seven appearances and five starts. Junior right-hander Hunter Pidek has a 1-4 record and an 11.28 ERA with 16 strikeouts in 22.1 innings over five starts on the mound.
Oakland was picked third in the 2024 Horizon League Baseball Preseason Poll after posting a 29-31 overall record and an 18-12 mark in Horizon League play in 2023.

Series History

Overall: Oakland leads 27-26
Bertolini: 13-17 // H: 18-12 // A: 7-12 // N: 1-3
Current Win Streak: 5 by Oakland
Last Meeting: April 21, 2023 (L, 9-14)
First Meeting: May 8, 1999 (W, 12-5)
Oakland has won five straight meetings to take a 27-26 edge in the all-time series. The Golden Grizzlies won two of three games at Eastwood Field last season before sweeping a three-game series in Rochester, Mich.
The Penguins and Golden Grizzlies met each year from 1999-2001 when both teams were members of the Mid-Continent Conference. The series resumed in 2014 when Oakland joined the Horizon League.

Up Next

The Penguins are scheduled to play a non-conference contest at Toledo on Tuesday at 3 p.m. before welcoming Northern Kentucky to Eastwood Field for a three-game Horizon League series on March 28-30.