Swenson Carries Penguins into second round with 8-4 win over UIC
GARY, Indiana - Senior Aaron Swenson pitched seven solid innings, and the Youngstown State baseball team capitalized on three UIC errors to defeat the Flames 8-4 in the opening round of the 2010 Horizon League Baseball Championship presented by U.S. Army.
With the win, the sixth-seeded Penguins advance to play top-seeded Wright State on Thursday at 8 p.m. Eastern. No. 3 UIC will play an elimination game against No. 5 Butler Thursday at noon Eastern. Butler lost to host Valparaiso 7-3 earlier on Wednesday.
Swenson held the Flames to two runs on six hits while striking out eight in seven innings. He threw 105 pitches in the contest and walked just one batter.
Brad Riegler pitched well enough to keep the Flames in the contest in his first start of the season. He allowed eight runs in 8.1 innings, but only four of those runs were earned.
In a game featuring two teams that combined to score 71 runs in a three-game series during the regular season, Swenson and Riegler went toe-to-toe for the first four innings as neither pitcher yielded a run.
Swenson worked out of a big jam in the second inning once the Flames put runners on the corners with nobody out. Nathan Orf led off with a bunt single, and he went to third on Chris Rutta's soft single to right. Swenson then fanned Ryan Boss, and Orf was tagged out in a rundown between third and home when Joe Betcher hit a grounder to third. Andy Leonard then flew out to left to end the inning.
The Penguins finally got three runs across in the top of the fifth on three hits and a UIC error. Padraic Williams drew a one-out walk and stole second, and he scored when Derek Carr's hard grounder to Matt Serna at second was misplayed. Jacke Healey singled and stole second to put runners on second and third, and he and Carr scored when Tom Clayton bounced a single over a drawn-in infield.
UIC got a run back in the sixth, but a big defensive play by Clayton kept YSU's lead at two. With runners on second and third and one out, Nathan Orf hit a deep fly to right that Clayton caught at the warning track on a slide. Steve McGuiggan scored from third, and Serna was thrown out trying to score from second when Anthony Porter blocked the plate.
The Flames cut the margin to one in the seventh when Chris Rutta hit a leadoff triple and scored on Ryan Boss's sacrifice fly to right.
The Penguins scored three big unearned runs in the eighth and started to distance themselves from the Flames. With the bases loaded and two outs following a Jeremy Bank double, an intentional walk of Porter and a single from Williams, Serna threw wildly to first on a play deep to his left. That allowed two runs to score, and Healey drove in the third to put the Penguins ahead 6-2. That RBI for Healey was his 59th of the season, which broke Erich Diedrich's school record of 58 in 2006.
The Flames scored twice off reliever Eric Marzec in the eighth, but the Penguins struck back with two runs in the ninth to keep their four-run advantage. In the ninth, Greg Dissinger doubled in Joe Iacobucci, and Williams singled in Dissinger with two outs.
Swenson has now pitched 99.2 innings this season, which is a new school single-season record. He upped his 2010 strikeout total to 94, which ranks second on the all-time list.
Seven different players had two hits for Youngstown State, which had 15 on the day. Clayton had two RBIs, and Williams scored twice. UIC's second through fifth batters had all eight of its hits. The remaining five batters in the order went a combined 0-for-16.
