Posts Tagged ‘Youngstown State University’

Youngstown State senior Kim Klonowski was named the Horizon League Player of the Week for April 11, the league announced on Monday.

It marks the third time in the last five weeks a Youngstown State player has garnered the award from the league, and the fourth time this season that a YSU player has received a weekly honor. Junior Jordan Ingalls, who will be featured in a Paneech.com Profile later this week, was named the player of the on March 21 and March 28, and freshman Casey Crozier was named the pitcher of the week on Feb. 28.

Klonowski batted .467, went 7-for-15 on the week, crushing her first two home runs of the season, driving in four while recording a hit in four of the five contests.

Youngstown State went 4-1 last week, collecting a key road series win at UIC over the weekend. Holding a 19-14 record, the Penguins sit just one victory from their first 20-win season since 2006.

In the Penguins’ doubleheader versus Toledo, the senior belted her first homer of the season in a 10-0 rout that capped the sweep. Her second long ball of the week came in the opener of the League series on Saturday, helping push Youngstown State to a 6-3 win over UIC.

With the Red-White game just a week away, the Youngstown State Penguins hit the field for their last controlled scrimmage heading into the final week of April practices.  Coach Eric Wolford knows that there is plenty to be done, but was ultimately satisfied with the effort put forth by the team on Saturday.

“I was encouraged by the defense when we were doing third down situations the first time up”, said Wolford.  “At the end of the scrimmage, we created the Western Illinois game again.  There are four minutes left on the clock, and the offense tries to eat up the time on the clock by staying in bounds and taking care of the football.  We ended up popping a big run that put us up by ten points there.  Those are the two things that stick out as positives right now.”

From a statistical standpoint, Pat White (above) had the big day catching 10 passes for 206 yards and five touchdowns.  White hauled in a 70-yarder from Marc Kanetsky. White would also hook up with Kanetsky for touchdowns of 20 and 8 yards.  Najee Tyler found White for a 49-yard score, and Patrick Angle would also find White in the end zone from 21 yards out for six.

White commented on his big day.  “We are going to keep trying to get better every day.  I just made plays I am expected to make and didn’t know I had that many yards.  I’m gonna try to do my thing no matter who is front of me.  Coach commented that we took a step forward today, and that felt good.  We only had five receivers out there.”

Unfortunately, there were still plenty of dropped balls to force receivers coach, Andre Coleman (above) to rub his head a few times.

Wolford commented that the drops are still there and they need to stop.  “Pat White made some nice plays today, but we need to find some consistency with him.  We know we have a pretty good running game.  At receiver, we saw some positive things today, but we need to become more consistent.”

Kanetsky led the quarterbacks on the stats sheets.  The Hubbard, Ohio grad completed 15-17 passes for 241 yards and four touchdowns.  Starter Kurt Hess was 13-26 for 164 yards and one touchdown.

Jamaine Cook also had a pretty big day getting 17 touches for 170 yards and four touchdowns on the ground.

With just a week of Spring practice left, the Penguins are focusing on consistency and situations that they got beat in last season.  The Spring game will start at noon on Saturday.  Kelly Pavlik, Tim Ryan, and Jay Williams have already been confirmed as honorary coaches for the event.

A day after the Youngstown State baseball team was beaten 15-1, a pair of Phil’s helped the Penguins respond with a doubleheader sweep of Butler on Saturday afternoon and win the series.

Starting pitcher Phil Klein won his fourth straight start in game one of the double dip and led YSU to a 5-1 victory.  Phil Lipari‘s walk-off single in the ninth capped a series of late heroics in game two as YSU won 4-3.

The pair of wins improved YSU’s Horizon League record to 3-3, and Butler dropped to 4-5 with the pair of defeats.

“I’m happy for our guys because we showed a lot of character to come back and win two today after how we lost last night,” YSU head coach Rich Pasquale said.  “It was a long day mentally and physically, and for us to win in the last at bat was awesome.”

After Klein allowed one unearned run on four hits in seven innings in game one, the Penguins had to rally from a three-run deficit in game two.

In the second game, Lipari (top photo) had a game-high three hits, and four of his teammates added two hits apiece.

“Klein is putting us on his back, and we’re going with him,” Pasquale said. “He located his fastball tremendously well, and he was dominant for us again against a team that had 18 hits last night.”

Klein struck out 10 batters in his seven innings. He became the seventh player in school history to strike out at least 200 batters over a career.

 Youngstown State men’s basketball Head Coach Jerry Slocum will be a featured guest today on SportsCenter at 4:30 p.m. on ESPNews.

Slocum has been a highly-requested guest of the national sports media recently due to the Guins being the last team to defeat Butler, who is playing in its second straight national championship game.

Last Saturday at the Final Four in Houston, Texas, Slocum was a guest on FoxSports Radio’s “Game Time Show” with Anthony Gargano, Lincoln Kennedy and Jeff Goodman.

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.”

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?

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.