NILES, Ohio – Opening #HLBASE play with a series win and sweeping the day's doubleheader, the Oakland Golden Grizzlies topped the Youngstown State Penguins, 5-2, on Friday, March 17 at Eastwood Field.
With this nightcap victory, Oakland improves to 7-10 (2-1 Horizon League), while the Penguins fall to 4-15 (1-2).
Taking his turn in the rotation for the fifth time this season and picking up his first win, senior left-hander
Travis Densmore delivered his best start of the year, allowing just two runs on five hits with only one walk and a career-high-tying nine strikeouts over 7.1 innings.
Both of the runs Densmore gave up came in the eighth inning, as he held Youngstown State scoreless over the first seven frames on just three hits.
As an interesting side note, Friday continues an impressive run of success for Densmore against the Penguins, as he is now 3-1 with 27 strikeouts over 28.2 innings in four starts against Youngstown State since the start of the 2022 season.
Fellow senior
Noah Stants, a right-hander, followed Densmore and handled the final five outs, recording a pair of strikeouts of his own.
Making his second start, North Lima, Ohio freshman righty Aidan English took the loss for the Penguins, dropping him to 1-2. He gave up three runs, only one of which was earned, on six hits with five walks and four strikeouts over five innings.
Redshirt sophomore left fielder
Drew Collins did not waste any time starting the scoring for the Golden Grizzlies, hitting the second pitch of the game out to right field for a home run, his third of the season, tying him with redshirt senior shortstop
Thomas Green for the team lead.
Oakland stretched the lead to 4-0 with a pair of runs in the fourth and another in the seventh and graduate student first baseman
Gabe Lux made it 5-0 by plating junior catcher
Brandon Heidal with a double down the left field line in the eighth, his team-leading eighth two-bagger of the season.
STATISTICAL NOTES
- With freshman center fielder Reggie Bussey and Lux both swiping a bag in Game 2 Friday, there is now a six-way tie for the team lead in stolen bases, as Bussey, senior Ian Cleary, Collins, Green, sophomore Peter Jelenic and Lux have three apiece
- Redshirt senior third baseman Luke Malmanger and Heidal both tallied their 10th hit of the season, making them the fifth and sixth Golden Grizzlies with double-digit hits this season, along with Green (21), Lux (18) and Cleary and Jelenic (14 each)
- Densmore's nine strikeouts give him a club-leading 24 this season, followed by junior right-hander Brandon Decker with 20 and fellow righty Hunter Pidek, a sophomore, with 17
- Densmore is the fifth Oakland pitcher to record a win in 2023, joining Decker, redshirt seniors Brett Hagen and Bryce Konitzer and graduate student left-hander Christian Stelling
GRIZZVISION WITH HEAD COACH JORDON BANFIELD
UP NEXT
Continuing a stretch of seven consecutive games in the Buckeye State, Oakland will next be in action on Tuesday, March 21 against the Mid-American Conference's (MAC) Miami (Ohio) RedHawks at Hayden Park at 3 p.m.
