The Falcons baseball team fell to the Youngstown State Penguins 3-1 on Tuesday afternoon. The team has had trouble scoring runs at home so far this season, getting a total of five through three games.
“The guys do great in [batting practice]; I just wish that somehow, someway we could figure it out,” Falcons head coach Danny Schmitz said. “But it seems like, as soon as the umpire says ‘play ball’, we forget everything we just worked on, and that’s been going on for quite some time.”
Most of the first half of the game went scoreless, as freshman pitcher Chandler Stillings for the Falcons and senior pitcher Javier Alvarez for Youngstown State had shutouts going through the first four innings. Youngstown State was able to get on the board first in the fifth inning with an RBI sacrifice fly to take a 1-0 lead. Youngstown State then added another run in the seventh on another RBI sacrifice fly, then took advantage of an RBI double in the eighth to take a 3-0 lead. In the bottom of the eighth inning, sophomore catcher Joe McGuinness came off the bench and hit an RBI sacrifice fly to score the Falcons’ first run of the afternoon. However, the Falcons would be unable to close the gap further, as Youngstown State held on for the 3-1 victory.
“Before the game, I told myself I was going to attack and that’s what I did,” Stillings said. “We’re hitting the ball well, things just didn’t fall our way… these guys will come around; we’re all a team and we play for each other.”
The team felt the pitching and defense gave them an opportunity to win by keeping the game within reach.
“I thought all the pitchers threw great,” Schmitz said. “We had three freshmen who I thought pitched very well. The pitching wasn’t the problem; the defense just made one error, but the pitching and defense for the most part was good enough for us to win. It was just the lack of offense again.”
The team feels once they are able to find consistency offensively, they will be able to get more momentum throughout the lineup going forward.
“Good hitters seem to figure things out, so we need to find out who our good hitters are,” Schmitz said. “We showed some really great signs offensively Friday at Eastern Michigan; then game one on Saturday it was nonexistent; then came back a little bit better in game two, and now we’re back to where we’re struggling. I’d just like to find some consistency.”
The team will play next on the road on Friday, Saturday and Sunday afternoons against the Northern Illinois Huskies.
“I know we’re going to face a very good Northern Illinois team,” Schmitz said. “They came in and swept Toledo, so they’re going to be good, I’m sure they’re one of the favorites in the West (Division) and we go on the road again, so it’s going to be a big challenge for us.”
