Posts Tagged ‘Youngstown State University’

Saturday Bojana “Boki” Dimitrov played her last home game as a Youngstown State Penguin.  The ending was bittersweet for the fiery Serbian because she rolled her ankle, only logged five minutes, and did not score a point in the Penguins victory over Loyola–not quite the way it was planned. Before the game during the shoot around, Dimitrov made her way over to the media table and thanked everyone, just a fraction of the class this kid has.

Penguin Coach Bob Boldon talked about losing his lone senior.  “She provided a lot of character and perspective.  She lived through a war, an actual war.  So as we complain about gas prices going up and all of our problems, someone who lived through a war keeps things in perspective for us. She genuinely loves to play basketball.  She always played hard and that just carried over because she always practiced hard too which is great for the younger kids to learn from.”

Brittney Zemko (above) also participated in her last game as a YSU Cheerleader.  Zemko was the lone senior honored of a great cheering squad that is appreciated but seldom written about.  Give credit to these young ladies and men for the hard work and preparation that goes into all of the backflips, pyramids, and chants we often, as fans, take for granted.

Congratulations also go to Vytas Sulskis and Dan Boudler who played in their last games as Penguins.  Sulskis had a fantastic career and did his home country, Lithuania, very proud.  Boudler was a quieter and more reserved guy who did a lot of the dirty work inside during his playing career.  They will both be missed.

Congratulations to all of the seniors on a job well done!

A little bit more than a year ago, Ron Strollo made a great decision.  That decision’s name was Eric Wolford. In a football hungry town, someone with more passion for the game of football, his players, his family, and anyone he meets was brought in to be the savior. At first, it was hard to tell if someone could be so passionate about so many different things.  Time is usually the best test and after his first full season, the passion is genuinely obvious.  Granted, a 3-8 season will not win many coach of the year awards, but a long-term plan is in place, a huge recruiting class of highly touted prospects has been added to the mix, and winning feels like it is only a moment away.  I got to sit down with Coach Wolford and review 2010, preview 2011, and just talk about football and life in general.

Paneech: Props on the recruiting class, very defense-heavy.  Did you feel like you filled some holes?

Wolford: No question.  We signed 24 players on defense.  I don’t worry as much about our offense because we are headed in the right direction and do the things we need to do.  Now we have the ability to rotate some guys in on defense and finish games.  That was our emphasis and you can see it when you look at the recruiting class.  Our staff did a great job, and we feel it is a very good class.

Paneech: How do you feel about the Youngstown media coverage you had in the last year?

Wolford: I have had a good relationship with the Youngstown media.  If something negative gets written or announced, I feel that they are entitled to their opinion and that is what sells papers and gets ratings.  Do I always agree with what gets said?  No, but I also understand that there are media versions of stories too.  Sometimes I give you guys the media version.

Paneech: A couple of weeks ago, there was a tragedy near campus where a young man and YSU student lost his life.  If people Google Youngstown State and that incident pops up , could it deter from your recruiting?

Wolford: There are multiple shootings happening on campuses across the country, unfortunately.  There was a football player at Arizona State who was recently shot.  In our society today, it has become a little commonplace because young people don’t know how to handle their emotions.  We all get caught up in it, but I do know that we have the third safest campus in the State of Ohio. I’ll continue to dwell on the positive.

Paneech: Last year at this time, you were more worried about acclamation of getting to know the players, it seemed to be a huge focal point going into Spring ball.  With that not so much of a hurdle this season, where is the concentration centered to?

Wolford: Last year there was an acclamation period for both players and coaches.  Now, it is completely different, we are 360 degrees from where we were last year at this time.  We don’t have problems with anyone talking back or guys being on time.  They understand work ethic and doing things right.  They understand that if you are running a drill and you have to touch that line, that line, and this line at full speed and they don’t go full speed or miss a line, that they are going to go again.  We are now at the next step and we are working on finishing, learning to finish better.  All of the character issues that surfaced in the past have been taken care of.  Are we all angels?  By no means.  You will really like this football team. They are good kids and very enjoyable to be around.  The chemistry is unbelievable. We know that we have a chance to be a good football team and we are close.

Paneech: How many steps are there to get where you want?

Wolford: I don’t feel there is a set number of steps.  It is a process that you have to patiently go through.  Any football program that has had sustained success has always had a good foundation.  This group that is here right now is the foundation and I feel good about building on it.  These kids push each other and hold one another accountable, they also take care of one another.  We put in a 2 a.m. curfew because nothing good happens after two in the morning, it was done for their protection.  Not one guy complained.  I am not out there checking, but if anyone gets in trouble after two, they are going to be in serious trouble.

Paneech: You did recruit a few wide receivers among your defensive slew.  Unfortunately, gone is Dominique Barnes.  Is that position a concern?

Wolford: At receiver, we lost Jelani Berassa, which was a bigger loss than anyone could have anticipated.  He is a tremendously talented young man who is maturing.  He is one of those guys that it is a pleasure to be around and he has got a bright future if he continues to work hard and do things right.  I think we are untapped at receiver and that we underachieved.  [Kevin] Watts came in here and did some good things as a freshman, but other than that, I think we underachieved, and that is not acceptable.  I have addressed that with my coaching staff and we are going to become overachievers at that position in the immediate future.  We signed three kids from South Carolina and one from Cleveland that are very talented.  They are going to be raw and are not a quick-fix solution, but we are not looking for a quick-fix, but rather a foundation.  I didn’t want to play a lot of freshmen last season, it just happened.  The best players are going to play.

Paneech: What about other positions like defensive backs and a new kicker?

Wolford: We have got two junior college safeties coming in here that can flat out play and they could have went a lot of other places, so we have competition now.  Donald [D’Alesio] is going back to corner a year older now.  Randy Louis is a guy who exceeded our expectations last season.  He is working hard and is up to 184 pounds now, he is all-in.  Obviously, we lost a great kicker, but we feel pretty good about [David] Brown. He is a highly-rated kicker whose film speaks for itself.  He has got a little bit of swagger but he knows what the expectations are.  Jake Smith decided to transfer and he isn’t even playing football anymore.  Football is not for everybody.  It takes work, it’s hard, and it’s tough and some guys can’t take it. We have raised our levels of expectation around here with stronger work ethic and more commitment.  Some guys can’t keep up, so they have to find something else to do. It doesn’t make them a bad person, I just say ‘I wish you well’, and let them know if there is anything I can do to help them out, that I would.

Paneech: Discuss the charity you are involved with and what sort of things you and your wife do to keep it active.

Wolford: We started a foundation because my wife and I have a son who basically has a disability.  We realized that there are a lot of costs that come with having a child with a disability that medical insurance companies don’t cover.  We said we wanted to start giving money to kids with disabilities to help them do various things.  This past year we gave 100 turkeys away at Thanksgiving.  We want to put something else together for Easter, we sponsor people for Christmas, I have paid people’s rent, I have given computers to families so that they can get their business back to a level where it needs to be to financially support their family, whatever the case may be.  It’s a very open-ended foundation with the key component being to help families or kids dealing with disabilities that don’t have the financial ability to make ends meet.

Paneech: The foundation is called No Stone Unturned, named after your son Stone.  Is it growing?

Wolford: It’s getting bigger and our goal was never anything other than helping people.  We give all of the money away.  I give away more money than I have.  It’s something I believe in and I call it “paying forward”.  I have been very fortunate to never have been hurting for anything, but I also believe part of that is from being generous.  I am a paying forward kind of guy.  My wife is the foundation.  We are having a Pancake Breakfast April 17th, the day after the Spring Game at Mt. Carmel in Youngstown.

Paneech: What were the highs and lows from last year?

Wolford: I think that there isn’t a day that  goes by where I don’t feel honored to be the coach here.  This is a very special place with tremendous tradition.  I know there is a lot of pressure and the average person cannot handle it.  I think there are so many speaking engagements where I see the community and people that support this program.  I embrace the expectations.  Last year is gone, and that was part of the process.  Would we have a solid foundation today if we won five games last year?  You learn more from losing than you do from winning.  When you win games, you just push forward and never address your weaknesses.  So what happens is, over time, your weaknesses become bigger cracks.  There are a lot of coaches who have never lost, they have never had to pick themselves up off of the floor.  Some people joke that God wanted to see if I was going to pull a Woody Hayes last year and just go crazy. Through my family and support, I enjoyed things.  It was a lesson learned.  Sometimes I feel if we would have won a bunch of  those games and would have came back with a false sense of security.  As much as I hate to admit it, we are not the most talented football team out there. We are gonna be someday, but we are not right now.  The guys that come in need to be developed.  There needs to be accountability.  We shouldn’t be the inferior team on the field, it’s unacceptable.  We’re Youngstown State, we are Youngstown State.

It has been a tough few years for the Youngstown State Women’s Basketball team.  The Lady Penguins looked dominant and Brandi Brown scored a career-high 35 points as YSU coasted to a 72-58 victory over UIC.  Brown also tied a school record with 12 consecutive free throws made tying Brianne Kenneally and Liz Hauger.

With the win, the Penguins could finish ninth in the Horizon League.  It is a mark of improvement over last season and the Penguins improved to 5-23, and 3-14 in the Horizon League.  UIC fell to .500 at 14-14 with the loss.

The first half was all YSU.  The Penguins held a 41-23 halftime lead.  The 41 point effort in the first half was the second highest total this season.  Brown paced the Penguins with 17 points and five rebounds.  UIC got ten first half points from Briana Hinkle.  UIC turned the ball over 13 times in the half and got only one assist.  Youngstown State, which was outrebounded 20-18 in the opening half, shot 5-15 from three point land, whereas UIC did not attempt a three.

In the second half, UIC rallied to trail only 53-42 with 11:35 left in the game.  Too much Brandi Brown on this night, who tied her career high of 29 points with a pair of free throws at the 9:58 mark to restore a 12 point lead for the Penguins.  Liz Hornberger hit a three to also tie her career-high of nine points to put YSU ahead 60-49.

Jasmine Bailey, who played a great second half for the Flames, cut the Youngstown State lead to nine points at 60-51 when she followed her own miss.  The Penguins, however, responded when Tieara Jones hit a runner and drew the foul with 6:05 left to extend the YSU lead to 63-51.

The Penguins couldn’t ask for much more from Brown who finished with a career-best 35 points and 11 rebounds.  She was also an impressive 12-12  from the free throw line.  In fact, the entire Penguins team was a perfect 17-17 from the line.  It was Brown’s 12th double-double of the season.

While looking at his stat sheet, Coach Bob Bolden joked, “17 of 17, it was good coaching.”

UIC got 13 points from Bailey and Taylor Foulks contributed another 14.  Unfortunately for the Flames, it is hard to win on the road when you turn the ball over  17 times.

Boldon also commented on his team keeping composure down the stretch.  “This was a lot like the Cleveland State game.  We had a good lead at halftime and collapsed.  I left that game wondering if we had learned anything.  I got my answer tonight that we did indeed learn something.  I was happy that we were able to keep our composure down the stretch.  Brandi was fantastic. This might be the most complete game we played this year.”

Youngstown State University could probably describe this season in two words, up and down.  Thursday at Beeghly, YSU played a sloppy game and lost to Green Bay, 71-60.  Damian Eargle shined in the loss, but too many chances eluded the home team in defeat.

“We did not have a good effort tonight”, said Coach Jerry Slocum. “In fact, it was probably our worst effort in the last three weeks.  Tonight was a step backwards, it was very disappointing.  As bad as we played, at the media timeout we were only down eight and had the ball, but couldn’t execute.”

In the first half, the Penguins struggled from the field shooting only 37%.  YSU also suffered one of their worst halves from three-point distance all season managing to make only 2 of 12 attempts (16.7%).  Green Bay, holding a 30-23 lead at intermission, attempted exactly as many threes and hit two more than YSU did which was pretty much the difference in a sloppy first half for both teams.  Damian Eargle had 8 points and a pair of blocks, needing just one more to take sole possession of second on the all-time swat chart, which he got in the second half.  Rahmon Fletcher and Alec Brown had eight points each to lead Green Bay.

The Phoenix opened the second half on a 10-2 run and opened a 40-25 lead, but Youngstown State responded and cut the lead to 42-34 when Kendrick Perry canned a three with 13:26 left in the game.  For three possessions in a row, YSU seemed to have control of things.

Each time Youngstown State would hit a couple of shots, Green Bay would roar back.  Green bay was having a good game tipping in offensive rebounds.  With the Phoenix ahead 52-41, Eargle grabbed an offensive board and hit a reverse layup to cut the lead to 54-46 with 7:22 left.  Green Bay got a three from Bryquis Perine hit a three to extend the Green bay lead to 59-46 with 4:54 remaining.  The Penguins were losing on the mini-run exchanges as time was slipping away.

Youngstown State made a final push with three minutes to go, but trailed 60-51.  The Penguins would never get closer and ultimately played the intentional fouling game the rest of the way out in the loss.

Youngstown State was lead by Eargle who tallied 19 points and had 4 blocks.  Kendrick Perry (above) chipped in with 19 points for the Penguins who dropped to 9-19, and 2-15 in the Horizon League.  “We got on a run, then we would get lazy.  We dug a big hole early and couldn’t get out of it.  We thought we could just come in here after the big win against Bowling Green and pick up where we left off, but it doesn’t work that way”, remarked Perry, who is playing with a couple of jammed fingers on his shooting hand.

Green Bay got 18 points from Fletcher, and 19 more from Perine.  The Phoenix ran their series record against YSU to 23-6 with the win and improved to 14-16 and 8-9 in the Horizon.

Youngstown State University gets to play in an ESPN Bracket Buster game every year.  A bracket buster is simply a game that allows the selection committee a chance to check out bubble teams against non-league opponents.  Wins and losses pretty much determine the automatic bids and YSU is probably not going to get an at-large bid.  Bowling Green of the MAC was the non-confernce opponent that the Penguins faced on Saturday.  YSU got 23 from Ashen Ward and held off Bowling Green for an 83-76 win.

“The things that the other guys were doing set up my shots”, said Ward, who added six rebounds.  “It feels really good to do all of the things we had to down the stretch and pick up the win.  To come out on the right side of a close game feels really good for us.”

In the first half, the Falcons and Penguins played pretty evenly with BG holding a 46-43 lead when the horn sounded.  Jordan Crawford had 13 and A’uston Calhoun chipped in with twelve for Bowling Green.  Youngstown State got 12 from Ward and 10 more from Vytas Sulskis. The story in the first half was Bowling Green shooting over 60% from the field and YSU shooting over 40% from three.  Unfortunately, YSU is 0-10 this season when trailing at half.

In the second half, Youngstown State, on the tenth lead change of the game, went ahead on a Damian Eargle left-handed slam.  The Penguins trailed 58-57 when Sulskis was fouled attempting a three.  The Lituanian-born Sulskis hit two of three charity tosses to put YSU ahead 59-58 with 13:31 left in the game. Torian Oglesby hit a two-handed slam with 9:57 left to put Bowling Green back in front 65-64 but Ward responded for the Penguins with 8:35 left putting YSU ahead 66-65.  Next trip up, Sulskis kicked the ball out to Ward who hit his sixth three of the game and gave the Penguins a 69-65 lead, their largest of the game, with 7:48 left to go.

Kendrick Perry, playing with a finger he jammed at practice, hit a miracle three with the shot clock winding down to increase the Penguins margin to 74-65.  Luke Kraus hit a three for Bowling Green with 4:23 left to stop a 12-0 Penguins run and cut the lead to 74-68.

Perry had a steal and a dunk to give YSU a 79-68 lead and rile the crowd.  Bowling Green then connected on two quick three-pointers Kraus to cut the big lead down to five at 79-74 with 1:34 left.  BG went into foul mode with 53 seconds left.  Perry and Eargle both missed the front ends of a one-and-one.  With 25.5 seconds left, Blake Allen hit a pair to jack the lead to

With the win, Youngstown State improved to 9-18 and continue to build positive momentum leading up to the Horizon League Tournament in March.  Bowling Green slipped to 12-15 with the loss.

YSU got 23 from Ward, 17 from Sulskis, and 15 from Eargle.  Credit the Penguins for being able to win despite poor free throw shooting down the stretch.

After the game, Jerry Slocum talked about playing well AND getting a win.  “Two factors contributed to this win.  One, we played tremendous defense in the second half and our guys did well with our matchup adjustments.  Secondly,we had a 24 assist to six turnover ratio. When you do that good of a job protecting the ball, beating the trap, and finding open guys, you should win.  Our guards had a 13-1 turnover to assist ratio.  Credit our guys for keeping their heads up after three hard losses.”

East Carolina scored six runs in the bottom of the second and got seven strong innings from preseason All-America pitcher Seth Maness to defeat the Youngstown State baseball team 11-3 on Friday in the season opener for both teams.

Junior leadoff hitter David Leon gave the Penguins a 1-0 on the second pitch of the game when he homered to right field off Maness, but that’s the only baserunner the senior right-hander allowed until there were two outs in the fourth. By that time, the Pirates led 8-1.

YSU starter Phil Klein worked around a leadoff walk to keep the Pirates scoreless in the bottom of the first, but the home team scored six runs on five hits and an error in the second. Zach Wright reached on a throwing error to lead off the inning, and he scored a batter later on Chase McDonald’s double to left center. Jack Reinheimer singled in McDonald for the second run, and leadoff hitter Trent Whitehead brought in two more runs with a one-out single. Austin Homan singled in Whitehead, and McDonald drew a bases loaded walk his second time up during the inning for the final run.

After another YSU throwing error prolonged the third inning, Corey Thompson hit a two-run double to left to put the Pirates up 8-1. ECU added two more runs in the fifth off reliever Blake Aquadro.

YSU got on the board again in the eighth when Armani Johnson reached on an infield single and scored on a two-out wild pitch. East Carolina got the run back with an RBI double in the eighth, and YSU’s final run came in the ninth when Leon singled in Neil Schroth.

Maness, a preseason All-America selection by multiple media outlets, allowed just one run on Leon’s home run in seven innings. He surrendered four hits without walking a batter and struck out seven to earn the victory.

Klein suffered the loss for YSU, allowing four earned runs on six hits and four walks in four innings. Aquadro allowed three runs on seven hits in four innings of relief.

Leon, who redshirted last year, went 2-for-5 with a run scored and two RBIs in his first game since the 2009 season to lead YSU. Drew Dosch, Jeremy Banks, Padraic Williams, Johnson and Schroth also had hits.

Thompson had three hits and drove in three runs to lead East Carolina.

The Penguins and Pirates will continue their three-game series on Saturday. First pitch at Lewis Field at Clark-LeClair Stadium is set for 2 p.m.

Detroit went on a big run in the first half and scored 12 of the final 14 points of the game to beat the Youngstown State women’s basketball team 52-43 on Thursday evening at Calihan Hall.

Brandi Brown scored 24 points and grabbed 15 rebounds for Youngstown State, which led 41-40 with 7:26 remaining. No Penguin other than Brown scored in the final 14 minutes.

Detroit shot just 33.3 percent and committed 10 more turnovers than the Penguins but held a 55-31 edge in rebounding.

Dominique Dixon came off the bench to score 12 points to lead Detroit, and she scored six straight points for the Titans as they started their final push. Britney Murphy also had 11 off the bench, and Yar Shayok grabbed 16 rebounds despite playing in foul trouble most of the night.

YSU shot 25 percent overall and 26.1 percent from 3-point range. The Penguins had just five turnovers.  The Titans went on a 17-2 run over four-and-a-half minutes in the first half as they turned a nine-point deficit into a 30-25 lead at halftime.

Detroit started 2-for-11 as YSU built a 13-4 lead. Brown scored her 10th point of the contest with 14:44 remaining to give the Guins a nine-point advantage. YSU then went without a field goal for almost five minutes, but Detroit was only able to trim the deficit down to 13-7.

Tieara Jones hit a free throw, and Brown’s jumper put the Penguins up 16-7 with 10:01 left. Detroit then went on a 17-2 run and took its first lead when Dixon hit a jumper with 3:38 left. The Titans ended up going ahead 24-18 at the 2:22 mark before Brown’s jumper off a good post move stopped the long drought.

Detroit led by as many as eight in the half before Macey Nortey hit both of her one-and-one free throws with 0.7 seconds left to make the score 30-25 at the break.  The Titans hit just five of their first 20 attempts from the field, but they closed out the half by making seven of their last eight shots.

Detroit took its largest lead of the game at 36-27 with 16:54 remaining, but the Titans did not score again for nearly nine minutes as YSU went on a 10-0 run to go up 37-36. Neither team led by more than one until Dixon ended a 12-and-a-half minute field-goal drought the Titans that put them up 44-41 with 4:19 to play.

Dixon stole a pass and hit a lay-up under Detroit’s basket to put the Titans up 46-41, and Brown hit a jumper on YSU’s next possession to end a four-and-a-half minute drought with 2:58 remaining. The Penguins did not score again, and Detroit scored the final six points.

Youngstown State will play at Wright State on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. The game was originally scheduled to tip at 2 p.m. but was moved up a half hour earlier this week.

Vytas Sulskis is currently 17th on Youngstown State University’s all-time scoring list.  He will probably move up that list at least one more spot before the senior from Lithuania is finished playing college basketball this season.  Sulskis is an interesting character who said hello to just about everyone who walked by while we were getting ready for this interview, more impressively, he knew all of them by name.  You will not find a friendlier or more outgoing person who has a smile on his face and a zest for life that few can match.

Paneech: What are the biggest cultural differences between Lithuania and the United States?

Sulskis: The biggest difference is the people.  The people in America are more friendly and more willing to help you.  A host family offered their house to me in Florida for two years.  The other difference is food.  People in Lithuania have more home-cooked meals, the wife, or mother, cooks a meal every night.  Here you have so many choices and can eat whatever you want on any night.  You can grab a pizza or anything really.

Paneech: How often do you talk to the family back home?

Sulskis: I try to talk with them at least once a week on Skype.  It is a seven hour time difference and I usually have practice in the afternoon, so usually I try to talk with them on Sunday.  I got my webcam and they have theirs so I show them my room and all that. Usually, I go home once a year for the Summer, but last year I stayed to work out and be better prepared for my senior year.  They will not make it here for Senior Night, but my host family from Florida is going to come.

Paneech: You are now one of just 32 men to ever score 1,000 points at Youngstown State, you are also jetting up the scoring list and currently sit in the 17 spot.  How do you feel about being in such elite company?

Sulskis: It’s nice to accomplish something that only 32 people ever did before, it’s a nice individual accomplishment.  I think I would rather take a couple of wins instead of moving up the list.

Paneech: You and Dan Boudler have the most history with Coach Slocum, how tough is he to play for?

Sulskis: Coach Slocum is an intense coach.  He demands a lot, but he pushes people to be their best.  Off the court, he is a really good guy.  Some people walked away from this program because they thought they were going to average 20 points per game. They had one vision and Coach Slocum had other visions and stuck with his system.  We bonded better this year, and we are losing, but we are playing much better and losing closer games.  We still work hard for coach everyday in practice and no one is quitting on this season.

Paneech: You are quite active on Twitter.  How did you start with it, how many followers do you have, and are you addicted?

Sulskis: A couple of years ago when it started, I figured I would try it out and just follow rich and famous people.  Then more and more people joined and I stayed active and it is now pretty fun to go on there and mess with my teammates and give them a hard time after something funny happens.  I have 150 followers, I think?  (Laughs).  The internet is huge.

Paneech: How close are you with Dan Boudler and Ashen Ward being the only holdovers from last year that played?

Sulskis: We are really close.  Dan and I have been together since our freshman year, we were roommates.  Dan is a chill, low-key kind of guy and I am more talkative and outgoing.  Ash is a great guy and we try to hang out as much as possible and have some fun on the weekends.  Damian [Eargle] is my roommate now, he is a lot like me in the sense that he is funny and also very outgoing.  We have spent a lot of time getting to know each other and he is a really funny guy.

Paneech: How are the new guys?

Sulskis: They are a very talented bunch of players.  I don’t think we have ever had this talented of a group.  They are all really good guys too.  Kendrick Perry is from Florida, so we have something in common and we know some of the same people.  All of the other guys who transferred in from junior colleges are really cool guys too and we enjoy being around each other.

Paneech: What happens to Vytas Sulskis when this basketball season ends?

Sulskis: Well, I am trying to get my degree in Management Information Systems finished by June.  When I am done, I would like to go play basketball professionally in Europe somewhere.  I chose my major because I really liked law, but if I would have studied law here, the laws in Lithuania are very different.  I took a liking to programs that help run businesses more efficiently, so I went towards business, hoping maybe I could do something with sports management.  I know three languages and that can’t hurt me.  I am going to go back to Europe either way.

Paneech: Other than basketball, what has been your most rewarding experience in the United States?

Sulskis: I have been fortunate to meet some really good people.  I know they say that Youngstown is a bad place, but it is not a bad place. I have a lot of friends on campus, I will always remember the people from here.

One Word Answers

Favorite Fast Food Meal: The $5 Beefy Crunchwrap Box at Taco Bell.

One Word To Describe Coach Slocum: Intense.

Favorite Team To Play Against: UIC, I usually do well against them.

Favorite Toppings On A Pizza: Pineapple and Ham.

Favorite Beverage: Water.

Favorite NBA Player(s): Arvydas Sabonis and Manu Ginobili.

Song People Wouldn’t Expect To Be on Your ipod: A lot of techno.

Favorite TV Show: Jersey Shore.

Favorite Fruit: Grapes.

Animal at The Zoo That Is Most Like You: Big furry lion.

Junior Jordan Ingalls‘ two-run home run in the bottom of the seventh inning forced extra innings and junior Kristen Philen‘s two-out single in the bottom of the eighth lifted the Youngstown State softball team (1-2) to a 6-5 victory over Kent State on Sunday morning.

The Golden Flashes broke a 3-3 tie with two runs in the top of the seventh to take a 5-3 advantage.

Senior Kristina Rendle singled down the left-field line with one out and scored on Ingalls’ first home run of the season which knotted the game at 5-5.  With the international tie-breaker rule in effect, Erin Gilmour was placed on second base as a pinch-runner and advanced to third on Samantha Snodgrass’ sacrifice bunt. Gilmour then scored the game-winning run on Philen’s infield single.

Freshman Haley Knight picked up her first win of the season tossing a scoreless eighth inning in relief of freshman Casey Crozier, who pitched seven innings and struck out three.  After Kent State took a 1-0 lead in the top of the second inning, junior Haley Thomas put the Guins ahead with a two-out, two-run home run in the bottom half of the frame.

Kent State took a 3-2 lead after plating runs in the top of the of the third and sixth innings.  Sophomore Vicky Rumph tied the game at 3-3 with a solo home run in the bottom of the sixth inning.  Rendle, Jordan Ingalls and Philen each finished the game with two hits apiece.

The Guins were also scheduled to play Elon at 3:30 p.m.

Coming into Saturday’s game against Valparaiso, Youngstown State had only one Horizon League win, a 61-55 victory over the Crusaders in Indiana.  Brandi Brown and Kenya Middlebrooks combined for 51 points in leading the Penguins to the season sweep of Valpo with a 79-76 win.  The Crusaders made it interesting down the stretch, but YSU was able to hold on for the win.

In the first half, Youngstown State never relinquished the lead and had as big of a margin as 14 points.  Brandi Brown, still limping from a knee injury suffered on Thursday, had 19 first half points on 9-10 shooting from the field.  Valpo got 16 first half points from Tabitha Gerardot but YSU would head into the locker room with a 44-34 lead.

In the second half, Tieara Jones (above) picked up her fourth foul with just over 17 minutes to go forcing Coach Bob Boldon to rest one of his better rebounders.  Kenya Middlebrooks picked up the slack for the Penguins.  Middlebrooks only had five first half points on a three-pointer and a standard two, but exploded for seven threes in the second half.  Middlebrooks had tied the school record once already this season with seven threes earlier, and duplicated the fete again on Saturday.

Youngstown State had a 62-52 lead in the game with 7:11 remaining.  Gerardot was doing all she could to keep Valpo in the game, literally scoring half of her teams 52 points, with 25 of her own to this point.  Valpo cut the lead to 68-62 with 2:42 left when Skyler Gick hit a pair of free throws.  Brown hit a pair of charity tosses on the Penguins next possession to push the lead back to eight.  The Crusaders still had life when Ashley Timmerman hit a three, cutting the lead to just three at 73-70.  Timmerman hit another three to make it 75-73, but Boki Dimitrov hit a runner to increase the margin to 77-73.  Laura Richards hit another three making it a one-point game.  Dimitrov was fouled with 5.5 seconds remaining and hit both shots to give YSU a 79-76 lead.  Timmerman had a look on Valpo’s final possession but could not connect preserving the Penguins 79-76 win.

With the win, Youngstown State picked up their fourth win overall and second in the conference (both against Valpo).  Brown finished with 28 points and 5 rebounds, her career high in points is 29.  Middlebrooks (above) finished the game with a career-best 23 points, besting her old mark of 22.

Valpo fell to 6-19 (3-10 HL) with the setback.  Gerardot did her part with 25 points for the Crusaders.

After the game, a happy Coach Boldon talked about his team shooting a season best 62% for a half.  “I’m very pleased with the effort tonight.  Offensively, that was our best first half, by far.  The last five or so games, we have had to play from behind, so it was different tonight in the sense that they were making runs at us with a lead.”