LEXINGTON, Va. ? Trailing by four runs in the sixth inning, Youngstown State rallied for nine unanswered runs to defeat VMI, 9-4, on Saturday at Gray-Minor Stadium. The Penguins improve to 2-3 with their second come-from-behind win of the weekend, while VMI falls to 1-6 on the season.
VMI starter Chris Henderson saw his no-hitter broken up in the fifth inning, but stranded a pair of runners to take a shutout into the sixth. After a leadoff strikeout, Henderson's seventh of the game, the right-hander allowed four consecutive hits, including three doubles, leaving the game with a 4-3 advantage.
The Penguins tied the game in the seventh, when Derek Carr scored following a leadoff double. Keydet reliever Travis Smink, who surrendered the game-tying ground out in the seventh, escaped a bases-loaded jam in the eighth, but could not do the same in the ninth. David Leon reached base via an error to begin the ninth, then scored two batters later on Jacke Healey's second go-ahead RBI in as many days. The Penguins kept pouring it on from there, sending 10 men to the plate in a five-run ninth.
“For the first five innings we were good offensively, but then we couldn't get it done in the last four innings,” said VMI head coach Marlin Ikenberry. “You can't do that against a good club that's battling back against you. Chris Henderson did a good job to get us into the sixth inning, then he ran into some trouble. In the ninth, you've gotta give it to their guy. Their best, Healey, beat two of our best this weekend, and then we couldn't stop the bleeding. We've got to play all 27 outs. We have a young pitching staff beyond our starters, and we need to have somebody step up and get the job done for us in the middle of the game.”
The Penguins were led offensively by Healey, who went 2-for-4 with two doubles and two RBI, while Casey Holland entered the game in the fifth and went 2-for-3 with three RBI. The Keydets got two-hit days from A.J. Yoder, Brian Sandridge and Alex Haitsuka.
VMI grabbed a 1-0 lead off YSU starter Matt Tucker in the second, as Sandridge doubled to lead off the inning before scoring on a fielder's choice hit into by Haitsuka. Yoder delivered a sacrifice fly to double the margin in the fourth, before RBI doubles by Sam Roberts and Graham Sullivan gave VMI a 4-0 advantage in the fifth.
VMI wraps up its weekend by taking on Bucknell on Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m. at Gray-Minor Stadium.
