Luczak pitches UW-Milwaukee past Youngstown State in elimination battle

Box Score

May 25, 2007

UW-Milwaukee 9, Youngstown State 0
Chicago, Ill. - Dan Luczak pitched an eight-hit shutout as third-seeded UW-Milwaukee defeated sixth seed Youngstown State 9-0 in an elimination game of the 2007 U.S. Army Horizon League Baseball Championship at Les Miller Field.

Luczak allowed eight hits and walked four batters but was aided by a Panther defense which turned inning-ending double plays in the fifth, sixth and eighth frames to quell the Penguins' comeback hopes. The right-hander struck out three to improve to 4-7 for the Panthers (25-31), who extended their season for another day.

UW-Milwaukee continues its run through the comeback bracket in Saturday's first game, taking on the loser of Friday's contest between second seed Wright State and top-seeded UIC at 11 a.m. (Central time).

The Panthers took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning as Grant Berkovitz led off with a double and scored when Penguin starter Corey Vukovic threw Ross McCoy's sacrifice bunt down the first-base line for a three-base error. Shawn Wozniak followed with an RBI ground-out to score McCoy with the second run of the inning.

UWM stretched the margin with two more runs in the third. Jesse Hart opened the inning with his second home run of the year, a shot which bounced off the top of the fence near the left-field foul pole. A one-out double by Josh Groves and Rob Brockel's RBI single produced the fourth run of the game.

The Panthers continued their assault with single tallies in the next two frames, with Nick Wichser's fourth-inning sacrifice fly and Wozniak's run-scoring single in the fifth pushing the advantage to 6-0. McCoy added an RBI double in the seventh for another Panther tally, and Josh Groves added a two-run two-bagger in the eighth inning to close the scoring.

Hart had three of UWM's 13 hits, with Hart, Berkovitz and McCoy scoring two runs apiece. YSU's John Koehnlein hit safely for the 29th consecutive game with two safeties---giving him a League-leading 108 for the year---with Erich Diedrich also adding a pair of hits for the Penguins.

The Penguins had scored 35 in their previous two tournament games but could not find an answer for Luczak's pitching. In addition to the three double plays, YSU left ten runners on base.

Vukovic took the loss for Youngstown State (19-37), falling to 2-4 after allowing five runs (four earned) on five hits in 3.1 innings.