Horizon League Baseball Championship Game Four: Cleveland State downs Youngstown State 10-4

May 22, 2008

Box Score

Championship Central

NILES, Ohio - Cleveland State University (22-30) defeated Youngstown State University (23-33) 10-4 to eliminate the Penguins from the Horizon League Baseball Championship presented by the U.S. Army. CSU advances to the next round of the loser's bracket and will return to action on Friday at 11 a.m.

The Vikings went into the top half of the ninth inning leading by just one run, but CSU would tack on five runs to put the game out of reach.

CSU starter Brian Long picked up the victory and moved to 4-5 on the year. The junior right-hander worked 7.2 innings, struck out three and did not walk a batter. Senior Vasili Pahoulis came on in the eighth to earn his fourth save of the year.

YSU starter Chuck Schiffhauer suffered the loss and finished the season with a mark of 1-6. The YSU right-hander struck out three, but did not allow an earned run.

Cleveland State's six, seven, eight and nine hitters combined to go 7-for-17 with eight runs batted in. Freshman Tom Carter, who batted ninth led the way with a game-high three hits.

Despite the loss, Youngstown State got a strong offensive output from senior Erich Diedrich, who went 2-for-4 with a home run, a game-high three runs batted in and a double. Diedrich's home run was his fourth of the year and his 27th of his career, which broke YSU's previous career record of 26 held by Adam Cox.

Youngstown State got on the board in the third inning. The number nine hitter John Koehnlein led off the frame with a double down the right field line. The junior would later advance to third with no outs on a passed ball. Three batters later, Koehnlein would come around to score after Diedrich grounded into a fielder's choice.

Cleveland State responded in the top half of the fourth as it scored three runs on just one hit. Schiffhauer allowed four walks in the frame.

Senior Kyle Bischof led off the inning with a walk. Senior Alex Kerins came up next and drew another walk. Bischof and Kerins then advanced into scoring position following a sacrifice bunt by freshman Adam Heideman. Junior John Foco came up next and drew the third free pass of the inning to load the bases. Junior John Brown followed and drew the fourth walk of the inning, which allowed Bischof to score from third.

The Vikings tacked on another run in the sixth without recording a hit. Brown was hit on a full count pitch and then went to second on a wild pitch. Carter followed with a fly ball out to deep right which allowed Brown to advance to third. Brown would then score on another wild pitch.

Another hit batsman with two outs in the seventh led to another run for CSU. Heideman was hit on a full count pitch and took second on a delayed steal. Foco then laced a RBI single through the left side to put Cleveland State up 5-1.

YSU trailed 5-1 heading into the bottom of the seventh when two home runs gave them some momentum. Senior Mike Turjanica drilled a two-out, solo blast to right in the bottom of the seventh, and Diedrich hit a two-run homer with nobody out in the eighth to cut the margin to one. Sophomore Eric Marzec then hit a two-out single to put the tying run on, but Pahoulis came on to strike out pinch-hitter C.J. Morris to end the frame.

In the top half of the ninth, YSU senior right-hander Ryan Sellman retired the first two Vikings, but a single by Kerins started a string of six straight batters to reach base. The Vikings had five of their 11 hits with two outs in the ninth, including four straight RBI hits from the bottom four in the batting order.

The 2008 Horizon League Baseball Championship is being held at Eastwood Field in Niles, Ohio. Single-day tickets are $6 for adults and $4 for senior citizens and youth, while all-tournament passes are $20 and $14, respectively. Students from all Horizon League institutions are free with a valid student identification card. Gates will open one hour prior to the first game each day.

For additional Horizon League baseball information, including the championship bracket, directions to Eastwood Field, GameTracker live statistics and game recaps, check out the official web site at www.horizonleague.org. For free, live video web casts of all games of the Horizon League Baseball Championship, log onto the Horizon League Network at www.horizonleaguenetwork.tv.