To say that Eric Ryan is ambitious would be an understatement.  Ryan has lured some major events to the Covelli Centre in the past couple of years and the hits keep coming.

Ryan and staff have already booked national acts like the Goo Goo Dolls, Motley Crue, Poison, ZZ Top, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Tim McGraw for the upcoming concert attractions at the center.  Pretty gaudy list of musicians there.

Last year, Ryan convinced the powers that be that Elton John should come to Youngstown, and he did.  He also managed to sneak Journey and Heart into town and Styx, Night Ranger, and REO Speedwagon stopped by later.

Think about it, these national acts don’t call smaller venues seeking a few locals.  They are playing here because Ryan and his very capable promotion team are convincing the acts that they will be well received.  Props to Kenny Bigley, Jon Jacubec, and everyone else involved who makes these seemingly unrealistic chances possible for the concert starved Mahoning Valley.

The most likable thing about Ryan is that he takes great pride in what he has achieved.  He is still a very humble guy who always says hello regardless of how busy he is.  I don’t know what else is out there that hasn’t come through Youngstown yet, but I can assure you that Ryan will get the big acts as long as he is in power.

To caption the picture at the risk of sounding quirky, action kicked off for the Youngstown State University football team Saturday afternoon at Stambaugh Stadium. These scrimmages are hard to gauge where a team truly is.  If the offense scores a ton of points, the defense looks really bad.  If the offense struggles, then it was a great defensive performance, but a lousy job on offense.

The Penguins had some series with the first team units facing off, or as Coach Eric Wolford would say,  the ones against the ones.  The worry coming into scrimmage play was the wide receiver position where drops have been a problem since Spring ball started.

“We need someone to step up as we continue dropping the ball.  The receivers will have to catch 20 balls for every one they drop to get used to a ball thrown harder than what they were used to in high school”, vowed Wolford.  “David Rogers, however, is having a great camp.  He has really stepped it up and looked good so far at tight end.”

The other problem that the Penguins are facing is depth.  There were a good chunk of players not suited up due to injuries.  Many are starters, mostly on defense.

“Hopefully Monday, we are going to get some guys back.  Will [Shaw] and Deonta [Tate] should be ready to go.  John Sasson should be ok, I think he tweaked his hamstring out there in the middle of the scrimmage today.  We will also get Deionte Williams and Donald D’Alesio back in to get some repetitions at practice”, remarked Wolford.

Allen Jones had a couple of nice runs for the offense including a big 65-yard jaunt.  Kurt Hess hooked up with Juilian Harrell for a couple of scores and Hess even showed his mobility on a 20-yard run for another score.  Najee Tyler connected with Pat White for a 20-yard score (above).  Tyler was picked off  in the scrimmage by free safety Justin Austin.  Adaris Bellamy scored a two-yard touchdown to round out the offensive production.

Defensively, it was nice to see Taylor Hill back on the field making plays for the defense.  Hill stuffed Torrian Pace on a third-and-one play forcing a field goal from David Brown. Brown missed a field goal earlier in the scrimmage to which Wolford stated, “He has never kicked on a field with a crown, he needs to get used to not kicking on a flat field.”

Spring practice resumed Monday and a second scrimmage will take place this coming Saturday leading up to the Red-White Game on Saturday, April 16.  Tickets and tailgate passes are on sale for the big Spring game.  Tailgate passes are available on a presale basis only and can be purchased by calling the YSU Ticket Office at (330) 941-1978.  Only 200 passes are being sold and over 100 are gone, so act quickly to tailgate from 8 a.m. to noon.  The game starts at 12:05 and game tickets can be purchased for $5 apiece.  All tickets are general admission on the home side of the Ice Castle.

Youngstown State senior pitcher Phil Klein won his third straight start and got plenty of offensive help to lead the Penguins to a doubleheader split at Le Moyne on Saturday.

Klein, who has allowed five earned runs in the last 27 innings, allowed one run on five hits in posting the seven-inning complete game. The Penguins won Klein’s start 5-1 in game two but fell 8-4 in game one.

“Phil was dominant today,” YSU head coach Rich Pasquale said. “He worked ahead and stayed ahead of hitters all day. We played well defensively behind him, and we had a much better approach at the plate in game two than we did in game one.”

Klein did not allow a hit until there were two outs in the third, and three of Le Moyne’s five hits came consecutively in the seventh inning.

The Penguins gave Klein all the help he would need in the top of the third when they scored three runs on five hits and an error to go up 3-0. YSU had five straight hits in the inning, and all three of its runs scored after there were two outs. After Armani Johnson was thrown out at the plate for the second out of the inning, Joe Iacobucci singled in Padraic Williams for the game’s first run. Greg Dissinger then singled in Iascobucci, and Dan Hurlimann drove in Jeremy Banks.

Dissinger singled in Iacobucci, and Banks scored on a passed ball in the fifth to give Klein a 5-0 cushion.

The Dolphins’ lone run came with two outs in the seventh when Ryan Mahoney singled, stole second and scored on Kody O’Connor’s single.

Iacobucci was 3-for-4 with two runs scored and an RBI, and Dissinger was 3-for-4 with two RBIs.

In the early game, Le Moyne built a 4-0 lead and through four innings and matched the Penguins the rest of the way in an 8-4 victory.

Mahoney hit a solo homer in the second to give Le Moyne a 1-0 lead, and the Dolphins scored twice in the third. O’Conner’s solo blast in the fourth made the score 4-0.

Williams brought in Johnson with an RBI groundout for YSU in the top of the fifth, but Le Moyne equaled that with a run in the bottom half.

The Penguins mounted a rally with three runs in the sixth, but the Dolphins scored three runs in the bottom of the sixth to maintain their four-run edge. In YSU’s half, Craig Goubeaux drew a bases loaded walk, Johnson was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, and Phil Lipari singled in a run.

YSU starter Kevin McCulloh allowed six earned runs on 12 hits while striking out three in 5.1 innings. Reliever Blake Aquadro allowed one run on four hits in 2.2 innings.

Le Moyne’s Mark Kuzma earned the win despite allowing four runs on four hits and five walks in 5.1 innings. Reliever Casey Cannon surrendered two hits and struck out six in 3.2 innings to earn the save.

Johnson had two of YSU’s six hits in the opener. Pat Wiese and Don Schaaf had four hits apiece for Le Moyne, which posted 16 hits as a team.

Youngstown State University finally got to play a home game, albeit at their reserve home field.  The Penguins were down 10-4 after seven innings but clawed their way back and fell just short of a great comeback, 10-8, at Cene Park in Struthers.

Joe Iacobucci went 4-for-5 with two RBIs for Youngstown State, which outhit Walsh 16-14.  Tyler Jones and R.J. Vukovich both had three hits, and Tim Stinson drove in three for the Cavaliers, who improved to 14-11.

Walsh took an early 1-0 lead in the first inning off YSU starter Nic Manuppelli.  Marc Miller led off with a double down the left field line, and he scored after a sacrifice bunt and sacrifice fly.   YSU tied the score in the third when Craig Goubeaux singled and scored on Phil Lipari’s ground out.

Walsh took a 3-1 advantage with two runs in the top of the fourth, but Neil Schroth‘s RBI double to right in the bottom half cut the margin to 3-2.

The Cavaliers blew the game open with six runs on six hits in the fifth to go up 9-2. YSU scored twice in the bottom of the fifth on an RBI double from Jeremy Banks and Iacobucci’s RBI single off the pitcher to cut the deficit to 9-4.

A sacrifice fly put Walsh ahead 10-4 in the top of the eighth, and two Youngstown State runs in the bottom half cut the margin to 10-6. Padraic Williams had an RBI double to right, and Iacobucci drove him in with his fourth hit of the contest. Both of those runs scored after there were two outs.

The Penguins set the stage early in the ninth when a walk, single and wild pitch put runners on second and third with nobody out. Goubeaux brought in a run with a sacrifice fly, and Armani Johnson reached on an infield single to put the tying run at the plate. Johnson was tagged out at second on a double steal attempt that allowed Chris Mitko to score and make the margin just 10-8.  Phil Lipari walked and Padraic Williams singled to put the tying run on, but Banks flied out to center to end the game.

In addition to Iacobucci’s three hits, Williams had three and Banks, Goubeaux and Johnson had two apiece.

YSU will play its Eastwood Field opener on Wednesday at 3 p.m. against Niagara.

After the game, Coach Pasquale offered insight on his squad’s struggles.  “We are not attacking the baseball in our plus counts.  With two strikes, we are taking big hacks.  Later in this game, we did better with two strikes shortening up our swings to get the ball in play.  We have to do that all of the time.  When we have a plus count, we have to put better swings on the ball, and we really need to improve on that.”

The 2nd Annual Ella Rose Solak Memorial Scholarship 3-on-3 Tournament was held Saturday at Lowellville High School.  The 3-on-3 tournament raises money for the Ella Rose Solak Memorial Scholarship Fund, which is awarded to a Lowellville High School Senior who will be attending college.  Ivan and Gina Solak, the parents of Ella, are very active and dedicated to this worthwhile cause.

“Last year, as an English project, Taylor Hvisdak, Emily Carlson, and Ashley Moore, came up with the tournament for my daughter, Ella, who at the time was going through surgeries for heart problems.  It wasn’t meant to be a memorial, but she didn’t make it to the tournament”, explained an emotional Ivan Solak (below).  “We are carrying it on, using it as a scholarship opportunity for the kids, and it worked out really nice.  We had great turnouts both this year and last year.  We want to see how many years we can keep it going.”

Ella was born on July 14, 2008 with a congenital heart defect known as hypoplastic right heart syndrome.  Throughout a period of nine months, Ella had to undergo a number of surgeries with each one bringing more complications.  Unfortunately, this disease took her life on March 23, 2010.  Ella was only 20 months old when she passed away.  Sometimes tragedy hits close to home.  In this case it did, two doors down to be exact.  The Solak’s are terrific people who did all they could while Ella was alive and the tragedy they had to endure never goes away.

The turnout on this cold Spring day was phenomenal.  The limit for teams was set at 50 and people were turned away because accommodations could not handle more than the set limit.  The brackets for the 3-on-3 format tournament are set by gender and grade and a 19 & over group.  There is a round robin to determine bracket seedings and then a single elimination tournament.

Solak went on to say, “The support we have received from the community since Ella was born can’t be described in words.  People here have really helped us, and this tournament helps us too.  It is amazing how many people volunteer to help out.  Everyone from 7th and 8th grade volunteers to 60 year old volunteers who are unselfishly giving their time.”

Have-A-Heart is the name of the foundation that has been set up.  If you would like to make a contribution to the fund, you can visit the Huntington Bank Branch in Lowellville. Sometimes tragedy inspires people to do good for others.  This particular group of people have endured enough stress and persevered to the point of helping someone else.  It is an unselfish cause that proves when bad things happen to good people, they remain good, if not better.

For the second consecutive week, Youngstown State junior Jordan Ingalls has been named the Horizon League Softball Player of the Week, the league announced on Monday.

Ingalls’ back-to-back awards mark the first time since joining the Horizon League that a Youngstown State player has won the award in consecutive weeks.

Ingalls led the Guins to a 6-2 mark last week and batted an impressive .548 with four extra-base hits. Ingalls had a double, two triples and a home run for the week.

She recorded a hit in each game and had multi-hit games six times. She also had three hits in three contests.

She also drove in 12 runs in eight games, including the game-winner against Colgate to cap a 6-5 victory after trailing 5-0 after five innings.

Ingalls leads the team with a .458 batting average with five doubles, four triples, three home runs and team-bests 26 runs batted in and a .764 slugging percentage.

*Photos Courtesy of YSU Sports

Youngstown State senior Phil Klein has been named the Horizon League Pitcher of the Week for the week of March 14, the league office announced.

Klein carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning and did not allow a base-runner until the fifth in leading YSU to a 7-1 victory over Toledo on Sunday. Klein struck out a career-high 13 of the 29 batters he faced in eight innings of work. He allowed one earned run on three hits and one walk.

Klein earned the weekly honor for the first time in his career.

Over his last two starts, Klein has a 1.38 ERA with 18 strikeouts in 13 innings.

The Horizon League usually gets just one team into the NCAA’s Big Tournament every year.  The last two years, Butler has been the one team from the conference to represent.  Last year they went all the way to the finals before losing to Duke in the closing seconds. This year, they knocked #1 seed Pitt out of the tournament with a dramatic 71-70 win on a Matt Howard free throw with less than a second remaining.

The last time Butler lost was at Youngstown State, 62-60, on February 3.  The Bulldogs, at that point, were a question mark to even make it back into the tournament field this postseason.  However, they got hot at the right time, won the Horizon League Tournament, and snared the automatic bid.

Here is where my gripe begins with the selection committee.  There were eleven Big East teams in the tournament.  Eleven.  Why? Yeah, the Big East has some good teams, but the lone Horizon entry knocked out the best (by seeding).  St. John’s had no business being in the field of 68.  Villanova was another questionable choice.  Georgetown stunk.  For Butler to have as many losses in the Horizon League as they did and still win tournament games, why doesn’t Valpo or Cleveland State get an at-large bid? The NIT is in New York, so Villanova and St. John’s wouldn’t have had to travel far to play where they belonged.

I hope Butler rolls through their bracket and wins the whole thing.  It is unlikely, but they are representing a whole conference that is undervalued by everyone from the tournament selection committee and ESPN.  Yep, the giant sports channel does little more than roll a few Horizon League scores on their ticker every half hour or so.

Butler isn’t the only team to do the conference proud.  Homer Drew had some moments with Valpo and Cleveland State has made some noise in recent tournaments.

The “experts” would be hard-pressed to find a conference that has had a better overall winning percentage than the Horizon League in the past ten tournaments.  How about a little respect?

38 Special made a visit to Northeastern Ohio to share their traveling party and some really good music with their fans.  The fans got more than their moneys worth at the Packard Music Hall in Warren, as the Wild-Eyed Southern Boys delivered.  Don Barnes (left) and Donnie Van Zant (right) harmonized as well as anyone I have ever heard live.  The whole concert was very tight and proved that this band can still deliver in a big way.

Packed House Productions gets an attaboy for bringing such a big fish to the small pond.  The DeVengencie family, who runs the promotion, donated proceeds from the concert to charity and fans did not have to pay any service fees as they would when ordering tickets through Ticketmaster.

Having interviewed Barnes a few weeks ago, I was told that this band still had it.  I was promised that the concerts they play are a party and it is all about delivering for the fans.  I learned that there would be no auto tune gimmicks, no drum machines, no lip-synching, or visual distractions to cover bad sounding music.  Give Barnes credit for being an honest man.

Joe Grushecky and The Houserockers played a blistering set to open.  Grushecky was a solid choice to open because the music is pretty much in the same genre, hard-driven, blues-based rock and roll.

Once Grushecky and company wrapped up, John Batcho, aka Mr. Sports,hit the stage.  Batcho’s station, Y-103, did a really good job hyping the concert for the last several weeks.  Batcho got the honor of introducing the band.  A few minutes of introductory sound later, The first chord of Rockin’ Into The Night hit and the crowd erupted.  Right from the first note Barnes sang, it was obvious that the big sound was still there.  Van Zant harmonized through the chorus of that opening song, and people around me were all amazed at how much 38 Special still sounded like their recordings.

Barnes and Van Zant really share a role of being co-frontmen and both know how to work the crowd.  Danny Chauncey was also on the front line with the big guys and also participated in making sure his feet touched every section of the stage.  Bassist Larry Junstrom typifies a guy that is happier standing back and doing his thing.  Keyboard player, Bobby Capps, stepped forward and sang Second Chance, but otherwise was stationary because his instrument was immovable.  Drummer Gary Moffatt did a couple of fancy things, and I am sure he could have done more, but played his role as a consistent metronome, not missing a beat.

Anyone who saw the show can vouch that these guys are having a good time.  Van Zant was smiling all night (above) and seems like he enjoys himself.  Barnes just keeps busy.  Don’t get me wrong, he was having fun, or “big fun”, as he would call it, but he was switching guitars, singing, always playing, and still moving around.

The sound quality was fresh.  There were no feedback squeaks of horror or out of pitch lyrics.  For my money, a good sounding band that does not tinker with the arrangements and doesn’t have to move down a key because they can no longer hit those high notes is a band I will always pay to see. Barnes’ vocal range and consistency are amazing. I have always felt he has one of the most underrated voices in the music industry and his performance just backs up what I have been saying.

While talking to a “casual” fan at the concert in-between acts, he stated he was not sure he would know more than half of the songs, just the biggest hits.  After the concert, I sought him out to learn that he knew all but two.  The catalog that 38 Special offers is more vast than the casual fan realizes.

Before the concert, I got to meet the band.  When I told Barnes I was the guy who interviewed him a few weeks ago, he remembered my name, and for a few minutes, it felt like I was talking to a cousin who I only see every Christmas.  Guys like that are a dime a dozen in this industry and it is refreshing to know that five guys and their manager, Mark Rogers, were never too big for anybody who approached them at the meet and greet.  They signed anything put in front of them, took pictures, shook hands, and answered questions with everyone there.

After a solid two hour set, the band came back out for a three song encore featuring Hold On Loosely and covered Creedence Clearwater Revival‘s Travelin’ Band to close the show.  An appreciative audience gave a well-deserved ovation to the visitors from Florida on a job well done.

These guys are touring all Spring and well into Summer, they are a must see show if you like rock and roll played the way it should be, with heart and passion and unobstructed.  38 Special…. they never lost a thing.

Also, thanks to Ron Stevens who snapped some great pictures and to Craig Campbell who represents the band for the accessibility and courtesy.

The Youngstown State softball team rallied from 5-0 deficit and scored five in the top of the seventh inning for a 6-5 come-from-behind victory over Colgate on Friday afternoon at the Rebel Games. The Guins also defeated Bucknell, 9-2, earlier in the day.

The Guins, who improved to 15-7 and surpassed the 2010 win total of 14, trailed 5-0 after five innings, scored one in the top of the sixth before the game-changing seventh inning.

Sophomore Caroline Krombach led off the frame by reaching on an error and moved to third on senior Kim Klonowski‘s second double of the game. Freshman  Samantha Snodgrass followed with a double to right-center field to drive in Krombach and Klonowski to cut the deficit to 5-3.

Junior Haley Thomas doubled home Snodgrass to bring the Guins within one, 5-4, and moved to third on a throwing error. After a walk to Kristina Rendle, Thomas scored on a wild pitch to tie the game, 5-5, and Rendle advanced to third on a throwing error by the Colgate catcher.

Junior Jordan Ingalls, who went 3-for-4, plated Rendle with the go-ahead run with a single up the middle.

Freshman Casey Crozier, who pitched 3.2 scoreless innings of relief, retired Colgate in order in the bottom of the seventh to pick up her ninth win of the season.

Against Bucknell, the Guins used a 12-hit offensive assault to knock off the Bison, 9-2.

Sophomore Vicky Rumph went 3-for-4 with two runs batted in while Rendle, who had a 17-game hitting streaksnapped against Colgate, Ingalls and Krombach each tallied two hits for the Guins.

Crozier notched her eighth win of the season by pitching 3.2 innings of relief against the Bison.

The Guins trailed Bucknell, 2-1, before tying the game in the fourth before exploding for three runs in the fifth and four more in the sixth.