Baseball Sports

UH’s late-game heroics fall short after Youngstown State’s big 11th inning

Senior shortstop Kobe Hyland forced extra innings with a solo shot in the eighth inning to tie UH with YSU 3-3, but the Penguins' big 11th inning led them to a 6-3 win over the Cougars on Saturday at Schroeder Park. | Jhair Romero/The Cougar

Senior shortstop Kobe Hyland forced extra innings with a solo shot in the eighth inning to tie UH with YSU 3-3, but the Penguins’ big 11th inning led them to a 6-3 win over the Cougars on Saturday at Schroeder Park. | Jhair Romero/The Cougar

Senior shortstop Kobe Hyland’s game-tying home run in the eighth inning was not enough to lift UH over Youngstown State, as an 11th inning 3-run home run lifted the Penguins to a 6-3 victory on Saturday at Schroeder Park.

Youngstown State was busy on the basepath early, as the Penguins had two baserunners on in each of the first two innings with one out or less. 

Junior pitcher Clay Aguilar worked his way out of the early jams, allowing no earned runs.

Senior right fielder Blake Way got the scoring started for Houston, taking a 1-2 pitch deep over the left-field fence to give the Cougars a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning.

From the third inning on, Aguilar settled in and retired 10 of the next 11 batters. 

With two outs and a runner on second at the top of the sixth, Way committed an error which allowed a Penguins run to score, tying the game at one.

Youngstown State’s next batter, Steven D’Eusanio, hit an inside the park home run to give the Penguins a 3-1 lead.

Junior first baseman Ryan Hernandez answered the Penguins three-run sixth inning by hitting a home run to left-center to lead off the bottom of the seventh inning. Hernandez cut Youngstown State’s lead in half, making it a 3-2 ballgame.

In the bottom of the eighth inning with one out,  Hyland hit a home run to right field to tie the game up a three.

The two teams were knotted at three runs apiece after nine innings, sending the teams into extra innings. 

In the 11th inning, D’Eusanio connected on his second home run of the night, this time a three-run home run to give the Penguins a 6-3 lead.

The Cougars brought the tying run to the plate in the bottom of the 11th but failed to score, as the Penguins took the victory 6-3.

Gary Clift Jr. earned the win for Youngstown State while senior pitcher Carter Henry took the loss.

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