On an 80 degree Sunday in October, the YSU Baseball Team was having an inter-squad scrimmage.  It wasn’t just a practice under game conditions, it was an ongoing clinic.  The Penguins have some holes to fill and there were many encouraging signs that Coach Rich Pasquale and staff are very capable of filling their holes with able-bodied players.

Pasquale is entering his fourth season.  Much like the football team, Pasquale has surrounded himself with knowledgable and experienced assistant coaches.  Craig Antush, newcomer Bill Herman, and Dan Lipari, as well as Pasquale stopped the action several times to coach up their young team.  Of the things getting the most work were pitchers throwing to first with runners on, base running, proper lead lengths, and other tidbits to fundamentally strengthen the 2011 team.

Gone are Jacke Healey, Tom Clayton, Casey Holland, Eric Hymel, Eric Marzec, CJ Morris, Anthony Nunez, Alex Oles, Anthony Porter, Aaron Swenson, Corey Vukovic, and Trent Wood.  That is a lot of turnover, losing 12 kids to graduation.  Joe Iacobucci and Armani Johnson are expected to fill bigger roles on offense and Phil Klein needs to anchor a very young pitching staff.

“Our biggest challenge is going to be pitching”, remarked Antush.  Remember this readers, good pitchers always credit good catchers for location, calling pitches, framing pitches, and helping a pitcher retain composure during adverse spots of a game.  YSU is fairly green behind the plate losing a couple of catchers to graduation.  So the battery growth is essential for this team to win.  Jonathan Crist started roughly half of the Penguins game behind the plate last season, but with teams playing primarily doubleheaders, someone else will need to emerge.  On the active roster, 17 of the 28 players are freshmen or sophomores.

Pasquale sees potential in many of his new faces.  Standing near him during the scrimmage and freshman Nic Manuppelli firing gas, Pasquale whispered to me, “this kid can really help us this season”.  This program is moving in the right direction and this staff couldn’t be ordered up any better to tutor a young group forward.

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