DAYTON, Ohio – In a contest that was ultimately delayed a total of seven hours and 15 minutes by rain in the area, the No. 2 Oakland Golden Grizzlies topped the No. 5 Youngstown State Penguins, 2-0, in Game No. 4 of the Horizon League Tournament on the campus of Wright State on Thursday, May 26.
Improving to 4-1, graduate student right-hander
Quinton Kujawa was terrific for Oakland in his sixth start, working into the eighth inning for the first time, allowing just three hits, and striking out a career-high six.
Lowering his ERA to 2.89, Kujawa did not allow a hit until senior right fielder Dom Bucko singled with two outs in the sixth.
Entering with baserunners on the corners and one out in the eighth, redshirt senior lefty
Christian Stelling came up big for the Golden Grizzlies, striking out senior third baseman Steve D'Eusanio and junior designated hitter Andre Good looking to end the frame.
Retiring junior second baseman Braeden O'Shaughnessy for the game's final out, sophomore right-hander
Brandon Decker picked up his third save.
Oakland plated their two runs in the seventh when junior designated hitter
Ian Cleary and graduate student left fielder
Cam Post scored on an error on a ball off the bat of sophomore catcher
Brandon Heidal.
While he took the loss to drop him to 4-5, senior righty Chad Coles was very good for the Penguins, allowing just two hits over 6.2 innings with eight strikeouts, throwing 126 pitches to record these 20 outs.
With the efforts of Kujawa and Coles, this game could be classified as a pitchers' duel as the two teams combined for only seven hits.
Senior third baseman
Jared Miller, freshman
Brandon Nigh, and Post recorded the knocks for Oakland.
Up next
The Golden Grizzlies now advance to Game No. 6 of the tournament against No. 1 Wright State, tentatively set for 3:50 p.m. on Friday.
Wright State ran past the No. 6 Northern Kentucky Norse, 18-4, in Thursday's earlier game.
The winner of this Oakland/Wright State clash will advance to play in Saturday's Game No. 8, while the loser will play the winner of the Youngstown State/Northern Kentucky game in Game No. 7 at approximately 7:40 p.m. Friday.
All games of the Horizon League Baseball Tournament are broadcast live on ESPN+ and an updated bracket is available at horizonleague.org.
