Fort Wayne, Ind. -- The Youngstown State baseball team won its third consecutive Horizon League game with a 12-3 victory at Purdue Fort Wayne on Saturday, and the Penguins did it in a different fashion than Friday's win.
A day after scoring eight of its 10 runs on home runs in Friday's 10-7 victory, Youngstown State had 18 hits on Saturday to complement outstanding pitching. Starter Brandon Mikos allowed two runs in the first inning but held the 'Dons scoreless over the next three, and Braden Gebhardt surrendered one run on just one hit in five innings of relief.
Offensively, RJ Sherwood hit his second and third home runs of the series with a pair of solo blasts, and Eli Brown added a solo homer. Those three swings matched Purdue Fort Wayne's scoring output, and YSU had plenty more offense as it claimed the series with the finale coming on Sunday.
Sherwood had more hits and runs than Purdue Fort Wayne's lineup had combined, going 4-for-5 with four runs scored and two solo homers. Brett Stanley, Alejandro Covas and Brett Thompson each had three hits, and Trey Law added two hits. Stanley and Thompson both had three RBIs, and four Penguins scored multiple runs.
Youngstown State got off to a tough start on Saturday as a hit batter and walk in the bottom of the first led to two Mastodon runs. Mikos allowed just one hit in the inning, an RBI single by Ben Higgins, and a leadoff single by Higgins in the fourth was the only other hit the YSU junior allowed. By that point, Youngstown State had built a 4-2 lead.
Thompson tied the game with a two-out, two-run double that plated Stanley and Covas in the third, and Brown and Sherwood both homered in the top of the fourth to present Mikos with the lead. In the bottom of the fourth, Higgins was caught stealing after his leadoff single, and Mikos retired the next two batters to preserve the 4-2 advantage.
A pair of infield singles by Covas and Thompson led to Covas scoring on Teddy Ruffner's squeeze bunt in the fifth as YSU increased its lead to 5-2, and Gebhardt took the mound in the bottom half. He allowed a full-count walk and a two-strike double to his first two batters, but he settled in and did not allow a hit over the next 15 outs. A sacrifice fly immediately followed the double as PFW got within 5-3, and that accounted for the final run for the home team at Mastodon Field.
Sherwood got the margin back to three runs when his one-out blast in the sixth made it 6-3, and the Penguins blew the game open by scoring six runs over the final two innings. YSU had four straight singles with one out in the eighth, and two runs came in on Stanley's two-run single to center. Trey Law then scored on an error, and Stanley scored the fourth run on a ground out by Thompson that upped the difference to 10-3.
YSU then added two runs after the first two batters were retired by stringing together four straight hits. Sherwood started it with a double on the first pitch of his at bat, and Law singled to put runners at the corners. Stanley followed with a single to bring in Sherwood, and Covas plated Law on a single on the next pitch.
Mikos allowed two runs on two hits and two walks in four innings, and he threw 70 pitches in a no-decision. Gebhardt surrendered one hit and walked four, two of which came in the ninth inning, and struck out two batters in his five innings of relief. Gebhart was awarded the victory, which was his first of the season.
Purdue Fort Wayne used two pitchers, and the Penguins scored six runs off both. Starter Carter Sabol surrendered six runs on nine hits in six innings, and reliever Sean Kasper allowed the other six runs on nine hits in three innings.
Youngstown State will go for the series sweep on Sunday as the teams will play at 1 p.m.
