The Youngstown State baseball team (4-19, 2-4 Horizon League) will begin a three-game Horizon League series at Wright State (11-11, 5-1 Horizon League) on Friday at 3 p.m. The Penguins and Raiders will proceed to play a doubleheader on Saturday beginning at noon.
Friday's series opener will be streamed live on ESPN+. 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 at Wright State
A Glimpse at the Guins
- Senior right-hander Jacob Gehring will take the mound in the series opener on Friday while redshirt senior right-hander JJ Tylicki will start game one of the doubleheader on Saturday. Freshman right-hander Tyler Heflin is scheduled to start for the Penguins in the series finale on Saturday.
- YSU has dropped two straight decisions after a 12-7 non-conference loss at Bowling Green on Tuesday. The Penguins lost two of three games to Purdue Fort Wayne in Horizon League play at Eastwood Field last weekend.
- Through games played on Tuesday, March 25, senior outfielder and Washington transfer Kyle Fossum leads the Horizon League and ranks third in the nation with a .471 batting average. The Seattle, Wash., native also leads the Horizon League and ranks seventh nationally with an .908 slugging percentage. Fossum also holds national rankings of 14th in hits per game (1.78), 12th in on-base percentage (.561), 19th in doubles (11), 14th in total bases (79) and 18th in hits (41).
- Fossum leads the Horizon League in batting average (.471), slugging percentage (.908), on-base-percentage (.561), OPS (1.469), hits (41) and home runs (9). He also ranks second in the league in doubles (11), fourth in RBIs (26), fifth in runs scored (24) and seventh in walks (15). Fossum has hit safely in eight straight games while reaching base safely in 15 consecutive contests. He leads the Penguins with 13 multi-hit games and eight multi-RBI performances.
- Fossum is slashing .654/.710/1.269 with 17 hits in 26 at bats over six games in Horizon League play. He has hit seven doubles and three home runs while driving in eight runs against league opponents. Fossum was named the Horizon League Batter of the Week on Tuesday after batting .500 over four games last week.
- Junior outfielder and Nicholls transfer Brayden Kuriger has now hit safely in nine straight games to improve his batting average to .299 through 23 games played. The Gonzales, La., native ranks second in the HL with two triples while ranking seventh with 20 RBIs and ninth with 26 hits.
- Redshirt sophomore outfielder/first baseman Brady Shannon has now hit multiple home runs in a game twice through the first six weeks of the 2025 season. The Youngstown, Ohio, native and dual-sport athlete at YSU went yard twice in the second game of a doubleheader at UTSA on March 1 for his first two home runs in a Penguin uniform. Shannon is also a quarterback on the YSU football team.
- Shannon hit a pair of solo home runs in YSU's 10-7 victory over Milwaukee on March 15 to push his season total to five through 20 games played and 17 starts. He has hit safely in 11 of his last 12 games. Shannon ranks second in the Horizon League with two triples while ranking seventh with five home runs and 10th with a .559 slugging percentage.
- Senior right-hander Jacob Gehring leads the Horizon League with 33.1 innings pitched. The Canfield, Ohio, native also ranks tied-for-fourth in the league with 27 strikeouts. Gehring struck out a career-high nine batters over six innings in a no-decision against Purdue Fort Wayne on Friday.
- Redshirt senior right-hander JJ Tylicki ranks second in the Horizon League with a team-high 31 strikeouts heading into the weekend. The Shawnee, Kan., native recorded a season-high nine strikeouts in the second game of a doubleheader against Milwaukee on March 14.
- Senior infielder Cole Smith ranks tied-for-fourth in the Horizon League with eight doubles while also ranking fourth with a team-high 19 walks. Redshirt junior infielder Garrett Cutting ranks seventh in the league with 20 runs scored.
- YSU is under the direction of first-year head coach Trevor Charpie. The Anaheim Hills, Calif., native was named the 10th head coach in program history in June after serving as an assistant for the Penguins during the 2024 season. At 31 years old, Charpie is the third-youngest Division I head baseball coach in the country in 2025.
- YSU's 2025 roster features a large group of 21 newcomers as well as 19 returners from last year's team that finished as the runner-up at the 2024 Horizon League Baseball Championship. The Penguins won four games in the Horizon League Tournament for the first time since winning the championship in 2014.
Previewing Wright State
A Win on Friday Would...
- Improve YSU to 5-19 overall and 3-4 in HL play.
- Snap a two-game losing skid.
- Give YSU its second straight win in the series with Wright State.
Scouting The Raiders
- Wright State is 11-11 overall and 5-1 in Horizon League play heading into the weekend. The Raiders have won seven of their last nine games overall after taking two of three games at Milwaukee last weekend. Wright State suffered a 9-4 loss to Air Force at Nischwitz Stadium on Tuesday.
- Wright State was picked first in the 2025 Horizon League Baseball Preseason Poll after going 32-24 overall and 20-10 in Horizon League play last season. The Raiders are the defending HL regular season champions.
- Redshirt freshman infielder Hunter Warren is batting .354 with a team-high 29 hits. Sophomore infielder JP Peltier is batting .325 and slugging .675 while leading the Raiders with eight home runs and 21 RBIs.
- Sophomore right-hander and returning All-Horizon League pick Cam Allen has a 2-2 record and a 7.64 ERA with 14 strikeouts in 17.2 innings pitched over six appearances and three starts. Senior right-hander Mychal Grogan leads Wright State with 21 strikeouts and 20 innings pitched over six appearances and three starts.
Series History
- Overall: Wright State leads 100-42
- Charpie: 0-0 // H: 19-45 // A: 20-54 // N: 3-1
- Current Win Streak: 1 by Youngstown State
- Last Meeting: May 24, 2024 (W, 6-3)
- First Meeting: April 30, 1986 (L, 2-14)
- YSU went 1-7 against Wright State last season with its lone win eliminating the Raiders from the 2024 Horizon League Baseball Championship at Nischwitz Stadium in Dayton. Wright State swept a pair of three-game series during the regular season before defeating YSU 12-2 in the first meeting between the teams in last season's league tournament.
- YSU and Wright State met every season from 2002 to 2019 before the conference slate was wiped out in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Recapping Last Game
at Bowling Green – Tuesday, March 25 // L, 7-12
- Bowling Green scored eight runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to rally and defeat Youngstown State 12-7 in a midweek non-conference contest on Tuesday at Steller Field in Bowling Green, Ohio.
- The Penguins held a 6-4 lead before the Falcons erupted for eight runs in the bottom of the seventh inning. YSU starter Brandon Mikos allowed four runs on 10 hits with four strikeouts while matching his career high with six innings pitched in a no-decision.
- Kyle Fossum went 2-for-4 with his ninth home run of the season while Caleb Hadley was 2-for-4 with a double and a run scored. Cole Smith had two hits including a home run while Garrett Cutting delivered two RBI singles. Ten different Penguins recorded a hit in the contest as YSU was bested in the hit column 16-14.
- Gavin Wilms suffered the loss after surrendering six runs on four hits while a pair of unearned runs went on Sloan Ulrich's record. Mitchell Seymour retired the side in order in the eighth inning in his first appearance of the season.
Up Next
Youngstown State will return home to Eastwood Field on Tuesday to host Toledo in a non-conference contest at 5 p.m. There will be a YSU T-Shirt Giveaway for the first 50 YSU students in attendance.
