Niles, Ohio – The Youngstown State baseball team scored in five straight innings and held on for a 13-11 win over Milwaukee on Friday in the Horizon League series opener at 717 Credit Union Field at Eastwood.
Friday series opener, which was YSU's annual Akron Children's School Day Game, featured almost 3,900 area students in attendance to cheer on the Penguins. Youngstown State scored the first nine runs of the game starting with a single tally in the second before posting four runs in both the third and fourth innings.
The Panthers plated four of the game's next five runs as the Penguins held a 10-4 advantage in the middle of the sixth inning. YSU scored the next three runs to build a 13-4 lead before Milwaukee scored seven times in the top of the ninth for the final margin.
After allowing a two-run single to bring the potential tying run to the plate, YSU reliever Kale Wemer induced a game-ending groundout to earn the save and secure the series-opening win for the Penguins.
The Penguins outhit the Panthers 16-9 to back another strong starting pitching performance from Braden Gebhardt, who earned his fourth win of the season. The senior left-hander allowed four runs, only one of which was earned, on four hits with eight strikeouts over six innings on the mound. Aidan English was responsible for seven runs with four strikeouts over 2.2 innings of relief before Wemer came on to record the game's final out.
YSU designated hitter Jack Messmore, who will be the Penguins' starting pitcher on Saturday, finished 3-for-4 at the plate with a home run and five RBIs to pace the offensive attack. Misael Uriepero and Teddy Ruffner added three hits apiece while Brady Shannon and Ryan Schummer each had two hits including a home run.
The Penguins took an early edge with a single run on three straight singles in the bottom of the second inning. Uriepero hit a one-out single, moved to second on a single from Ruffner and scored on an RBI single from Messmore to give YSU a 1-0 lead.
Youngstown State pushed its lead to 5-0 with four runs in the bottom of the third inning. Schummer belted a two-run blast to right field before Messmore delivered a two-out, two-run single.
The Penguins put together their second consecutive four-run inning in the bottom of the fourth to extend their lead to 9-0. Schummer and Luke Rossi delivered back-to-back RBI singles and Uriepero followed with a two-run double.
The Panthers got on the scoreboard and cut YSU's lead to 9-3 with a three-run home run from Charlie Marion in the top of the fifth inning.
Shannon hit a solo blast to left field, his 14th home run of the season, in the bottom of the fifth inning to give the Penguins a 10-3 edge.
Dominic Kibler's solo home run in the top of the sixth inning brought Milwaukee within 10-4, but YSU countered with a pair of runs in the home half of the sixth to lead 12-4. Messmore brought home the first run of the frame with an RBI groundout while James Carlson drove in a run with a sacrifice fly.
Messmore's solo home run to right field in the bottom of the eighth inning gave the Guins a 13-4 edge heading into the top of the ninth.
Bradyn Horn and Joey Spence recorded back-to-back RBI singles before two straight bases-loaded walks from John Hadley and Tate Schmidt trimmed YSU's advantage to 13-8 in Milwaukee's half of the ninth inning. Connor Bozak scored on a wild pitch while Grant Ross' two-out, two-run single accounted for the final two runs of the contest.
Ross, Marion and Horn each finished with two hits to lead the Panthers offensively.
MKE starter Gavin Theis surrendered nine runs on 11 hits over 3.1 innings in a losing effort while Aiden Fishnick allowed four runs on five hits over 4.2 innings out of the bullpen.
Youngstown State will go for the Horizon League series win over Milwaukee on Saturday afternoon. Game two of this weekend's three-game series at 717 Credit Union Field at Eastwood is now scheduled for 1Â p.m. and live audio will be available on 1390 WNIO and the iHeartRadio app.
