Four New Orleans pitchers limited the Youngstown State baseball team to just an unearned run in the ninth inning as the Privateers beat the Penguins 7-1 in the series finale on Sunday at Maestri Field.
The Privateers scored five times in the second inning and added two more runs on their second two-run homer of the game in the fifth.
Jacke Healey and Zac McFarland had two hits apiece for YSU, while Mike Petello had three hits and one of UNO's homers. The Penguins played well defensively and committed just one error in the 27 innings played in New Orleans. YSU, however, stranded 10 runners.
Senior Alex Oles pitched three innings of scoreless relief for YSU, allowing just one hit and striking out five of the 10 batters he faced. Oles made his first collegiate appearance since 2006 when he was playing for the University of Pittsburgh.
Jim McGonigle earned his first win for New Orleans, allowing three hits while striking out four in five innings. Cory Myers threw a scoreless sixth and seventh, Mats Mattson threw the eighth, and Kevin DeGrouttola gave up an unearned run without allowing a hit in the ninth.
YSU starter Cody Dearth worked around a leadoff hit batsman in the first, but he ran into trouble in the second. Jay Morris led off with a double, and the next to hitters walked to load the bases. Morris scored in a wild pitch, and John Thomas hit a two-run double to chase Dearth from the contest. Leadoff hitter Ryan Eden then greeted freshman Kevin McCulloh with a two-run homer to left on a 2-0 pitch to put New Orleans up 5-0.
Petello hit a two-out, two-run homer to right off McCulloh in the fifth for UNO's final offense.
The Penguins were able to get a run in the ninth when Joe Iacobucci scored on an error off the bat of Eric Hymel, a Louisiana native.
YSU will begin a three-game series at Cincinnati on Friday at 4 p.m.
COURTESY: YSU SPORTS INFORMATION
