Key Two-Out Hits Lifts Kent State over Youngstown State 5-2
4/28/2010 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
NILES, Ohio - The Golden Flashes scored four runs with two outs and held the Penguins to single runs in the seventh and the ninth as Kent State (25-18) ran its winning streak to five with a 5-2 win over Youngstown State (19-20).
Junior Justin Gill (3-1) faced 16 batters in five innings of work, surrendering only two hits in the longest outing of his collegiate career. Sophomore Kyle McMillen got the final two outs of the ballgame for his third save of the year.
"We had a great pitching performance by Justin Gill," said head coach Scott Stricklin. "He started the game off right and threw five scoreless innings with very minimal effort. He was very good and threw a lot of strikes. Again, our defense was really solid like it has been the entire year. The defense has been outstanding."
Cody Dearth took the loss for Youngstown State, falling to 1-4.
Offensively, the Flashes were able to bang out 11 hits for the ballgame. Sophomore Jimmy Rider led the charge with two base hits, including his 16th double of the season, on five at-bats, two RBI's and a run scored. McMillen went 2-for-3 with a run scored while sophomore Travis Shaw had one hit in three at-bats with a walk, hit by pitch, two runs scored and an RBI.
Kent State jumped out to a 1-0 lead with a single tally in the top of the first. With one out, sophomore Ben Klafczynski and senior Anthony Gallas both singled and sophomore Kyle McMillen was hit by a pitch to load the bases. An RBI groundout by sophomore Jimmy Rider quickly gave the Golden Flashes a 1-0 lead.
Junior Justin Gill faced one more than the minimum in five innings of work, only giving up a pair of hits to Youngstown State's Joe Iacobucci. Gill struck out two and only threw 51 pitches (39 for strikes), having not allowed a run in the last nine innings of work dating back to April 16.
In the top of the sixth, Kent State added two runs on clutch two-out hitting. With one down and a runner at first after McMillen was hit by a pitch, Rider hit a ground ball to short. McMillen was putout at second, but the second baseman threw way off the bag at first to allow Rider to advance to second. Sophomore Travis Shaw put KSU up two with a single to right field and advanced to second on freshman Jason Bagoly's single to right field. Freshman Evan Campbell singled to left center to score Shaw and put the Golden Flashes up 3-0.
"We had several two-out hits to extend innings and drive in runs," Stricklin said. "Any time you can do that, it's demoralizing to the other team. You feel like your close to getting out of the inning and then all of a sudden, someone gets a two-out hit. It's good to see George get that hit. Rider also had one. It's big for our team to get RBI hits with two outs."
Youngstown State battled back in the bottom of the seventh with a single run, but freshman Addison Dunn was able to pitch around trouble. To leadoff the inning, Dunn beaned Tom Clayton and scored on Iacobucci's double down the right field line. The runner never moved from second after a groundout to short, a pop up to shallow left field and a shallow fly to centerfield.
Kent State answered with another run on a two-out hit. Shaw walked on four-straight pitches to begin the inning and advanced to third on a strikeout wild pitch and a groundout to first. Down in the count 0-2, freshman George Robert singled down the right over the bag at first to give the Flashes a 4-1 lead.
The Penguins threatened in the eighth when freshman Christian Lockett walked the first batter on four pitches and was 2-0 on C.J. Morris, but Lockett got Morris to fly out and Jacke Healey to ground into a 6-4-3 double play to get out of the inning.
The Golden Flashes added a single run for the third-straight game in the top of the ninth with another two-out base hit. McMillen started with a groundball to first that took a high hop on the YSU defense. The first baseman was able to come down with the ball, but the flip to the pitcher was late. McMillen then advanced to second on a wild pickoff throw and scored on Rider's RBI single to right field.
Youngstown State was able to score another run in the bottom of the ninth and bring the tying run to the plate with two outs, but sophomore Kyle McMillen got Casey Holland to hit a foul pop to Shaw to end the ballgame.
Kent State returns to action this weekend when it hosts Ohio for a three-game set. First pitch is scheduled for 3 p.m. Friday and 1 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
