Athens, Ohio – The Youngstown State baseball team cranked out 16 hits, but the Penguins dropped a 21-19 decision to Ohio on Tuesday afternoon at Bob Wren Stadium.

Freshman Derrick Tarpley Jr. went 3-for-5 with four runs scored, a double, a home run and four runs batted in while Trey Law and Ian Francis also tallied three hits for the Penguins. Law also drove in two runs and scored three times while Francis drove in four and scored twice.

Law hit a leadoff single, stole second and scored on a wild pitch in the bottom of the first inning to put YSU in front. Francis and Matt Thompson each walked and scored on a two-out, two-run single from Alejandro Covas that gave the Penguins a 3-0 lead.

The Penguins exploded for 10 runs on six hits in the top of the third to take a 13-1 lead. Tarpley led off the rally with a double and hit a three-run blast, the first of his career, later in the inning. Francis, Law and Teddy Ruffner also had run-scoring hits during the rally.

The Bobcats used a 10-run inning in the bottom of the third to get back within 13-11 after three innings.

Trey Pancake's run-scoring groundout plated Covas to put the Penguins back up three runs at 14-11, but the Bobcats tacked on six runs in the bottom half to take a 17-14 lead.

Ohio added three more runs in the sixth to extend the lead to 21-14.

Francis drilled a two-run single in the seventh that plated Tarpley and Law to cut the deficit back to five runs at 21-16.

In the top of the ninth, Tarpley drove in his fourth run of the game, and Francis tripled to plate Tarpley to cut the Ohio lead back to three runs. RJ Sherwood followed with a double to left to score Francis for the final run of the high-scoring affair.

Youngstown State visits Georgia Tech for a four-game non-conference series, March 8-10, in Atlanta, Ga. The Penguins and Yellow Jackets will open the series on Friday at 4 p.m. and the game will be broadcast live on ACC Network Extra.